EARTHQUAKE!!! & Belvoir Castle

Well I knew that I would experience a lot of new things while I was over here in England, but I didn't predict that I would experience my first EARTHQUAKE!! At exactly 1 am this morning an earthquake woke me and everyone else up. The shaking and loud rumbling sound lasted for about 10 seconds . There was no damage in my room, but in other rooms pictures were knocked off the walls. It was a strange experience! The epicenter of the earthquake was in Lincolnshire, which is the county that I am living in, and it was a 5.2 on the Richter Scale. It has been the biggest earthquake in England since the 80's. Pretty crazy!

Today we went on a field trip to Belvoir Castle (pronounced Beaver Castle). It was a really pretty place and the weather was gorgeous. We just learned the history of the castle, but I did get some pretty pictures. Enjoy!

Lazy Weekend

This weekend I didn't have any travel planned so my friends and I just stayed at the manor. We also have a 8 page research paper due tomorrow so we needed to get that done too. It was a really nice weekend just staying here, working on homework, and watching movies. This is my last free weekend until I leave so I am grateful for the time to relax!

I do have one really neat story. I meet this woman today at church, and when she was 24 she lived in California. She was the nanny for a director's children. I didn't recognize the director's name, but evidently he was the director of The Parent Trap and Pollyanna!! That is so cool! The woman said that back then it was very popular for Americans to have English nannies, and so she got the job and moved to California. I was blown away by it!

Saturday in Bath

Yesterday I went to Bath, England to see Sam and Sharon Kent. They were over here visiting their son and daughter-in-law for the week. This was my first trip by myself, but I made it to Bath and back to Grantham safe and sound. I was pretty proud of myself.

My day started pretty early because my train was supposed to leave at 6:15 am. When I got to the train station, my train ended up being 1 hour late. This threw off my whole schedule with the next train I had to catch. I ended up getting to Bath 1 hour later than planned, but at least I made it.

When I got to Bath Mr. Kent and I went on a tour of the Roman Baths. It was really neat to see because they are so old, and I've always heard about them. After that we met up with the rest of the gang (Mrs. Kent, Daniel, and Lynn) and looked for a place to eat. I know I always ramble on about how great the food is over here, but I had a really good sandwich with slices of mozzarella cheese, pesto, and sun dried tomatoes. Yum!

After we ate we went to tour a house in Bath from the 1700's. It was really pretty. We also went to see some scenic views of the city. Then we went to Bath Abbey and looked around it for a while.

I got to see Daniel and Lynn's flat before I left, and it is right in the city a floor above where the shops are. Their flat is really cute and I had some really great coffee while I was there. My train left from Bath at 5:15, and I got back to the college at around 9:30. I had a really great time while I was in Bath; everything was so pretty. It was really good to see the Kents, and I kinda just wanted to fly back to Scottsville with them, but I know there is still much to see over here.

IRELAND!

Well I fell in love this weekend...with Ireland! It was so beautiful and the people there are so nice and have a great accent. Much better than England!

We left on Wednesday afternoon and rode about 6 hours on the coach bus. Then we rode the ferry for 4 hours to get to Ireland. That was about 2:30 in the morning so I slept, but the water must have been really rough because the ferry, which was the size of a cruise boat, kept rocking back and forth. After we got off the ferry we drove for about 4 more hours to Blarney. While we were there we went to Blarney Castle. It was a neat castle but the coolest thing to do was kiss the Blarney Stone. Supposedly everyone who kisses it gains eloquence. You had to hang upside down to kiss it, and there is a person there to hold you so you won't fall out of the castle!
We also went to Rock Close which is filled with mystical things. There were steps that if you walked up and down them with your eyes closed you would be granted a wish and other fun things like that.

After a couple of hours in Blarney we left for Killarney. The hotel we stayed at in Killarney was so nice. That night we went out to eat and walked around the town area. We were all very tired after riding a bus for practically the whole day so we didn't stay out very late, and plus everything was closed.

Friday morning we had an Irish breakfast, which consisted of bacon (like country ham), sausage links (best I've ever had), and eggs. Then we went on a tour of The Ring of Kerry. This is where a lot of my scenic pictures came from. We drove around this 150 mile loop and stopped at various places to take pictures. At one stop we went into this pub and there were 3 older Irish guys there. They started singing songs, and it was just like something you would see out of a movie. They were sitting next to the door, and when I was leaving the guy on the end grabbed my hand gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, "You are the prettiest of the bunch!" It was so funny! That night we went back to Killarney and had a good last night at Killarney.

Saturday we were up and ready to leave for Dublin. We had to drive another 6 hours there, and we got to Dublin at 3 that afternoon. We went sightseeing and we shopped till we didn't have any money left!! Then we went to this really good Italian Restaurant to eat, and after we had eaten the main course we went to a gelato place. I got a little bit of chocolate, caramel, and pistachio gelato. That was the best ice cream that I have ever had in my life! I can't imagine how good it will be when I actually go to Italy! After that we walked around Dublin for a few hours, and it is a really cool city at night. There is music everywhere!

Sunday we got up bright and early to leave. We got to ride the ferry again and we even stopped at the town with the longest name in Europe. Its name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllaantysiliogogogoch. What a name!! We got back to school at 5:30 and even though I loved Ireland I was ready to be back home because I was exhausted!!

Weekend at the Manor

This weekend I am not traveling anywhere because we had only had a two day weekend. However, Friday night my Meet-a-Family picked my friend Beth and me up and we went bowling. It was pretty fun, and I learned that I wear a size 4 shoe in the UK. After bowling we went back to their house and had sausage and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes). It was really good to have a home cooked meal; that was my first one in a month! For dessert we had Christmas pudding, which was a chocolate cake with fruit in it with pudding topping. We drank tea of course.

This morning our english family picked us up and we went shopping at a huge store that had everything you could imagine! Then we went to a really good restaurant for lunch. It was kind of like a buffet but you could only go through one time. I am becoming less of a picky eater, and I am eating vegtables for once in my life! We drove around looking at the countryside after lunch, and then we went back to their house. We sat around and talked then Angela and Dorrien taught Beth and me how to knit. I think that I like to crochet better though.