Avenbury, Stonehenge and Bath!

Guess where we went last weekend? We took a hired coach to Avenbury, Stonehenge, and Bath! Avenbury is a town that has a ton of stone circles similar to Stonehenge, except they do not have the stones on top and you can go right up to these stones and touch them. And you can do all of this while enjoying a game of dodge the poop. The stones are in sheep grazing fields, so there is poop everywhere! I stepped in a landmine right before we left. While eating our lunch, we found a shop that sold ice cream, so naturally quite a few of us got some even though it was freezing outside and it hurt our hands to hold it. Still worth it.

Next we drove to Stonehenge in Salisbury, we got the audio-guided tour but I didn't listen to very much of it. I think it is better to just go and look at the stones. They are very beautiful and there is a lot less poop surrounding them!

Then we went to to Cathedral where we ran into Joe Ballandby. After that we got some time to shop in Salisbury and Philip and I picked out a new scarf for him. After an hour we were off to Bath, by this time it was getting close to 5 so it was getting dark. Our days are really short up here, usually it becomes pitch black by 4:45-5 pm. A couple of us went to this little Italian restaurant, I got mint ravioli with a tomato lamb sauce which was delicious!!

On our last day we got to tour the Roman Bath house and at the end of the tour you got to drink some of the water, it tasted like salt water, in case you were wondering.  We also got a tour of the city from a very energetic and enthusiastic guide of the city of Bath. This tour included the Royal Crescent, best known from Jane Austen's Persuasion.  We also saw the Circus, which is a beautiful area of houses. Marin and I ate lunch at this tiny pub on some side street. I think it was the best fish and chips I have ever eaten. On our ride home we couldn't figure out how to work the heater  until the last hour of a four hour car ride. Bob, our driver, picked out a restaurant by a loch for us to eat at for dinner. He then proceeded to explain how a loch worked even though we all said we knew what it was when he originally asked.

Overall a great trip, great weather, (it was cold but no rain). I went to Scotland for thanksgiving weekend with my friend Claire! She is looking at the University of Edinburgh and asked if I wanted to come along. Hmm do I want to go to Scotland? YES. I missed being with my family for Thanksgiving, and I heard they all meet in Afton this year instead of my house. I am currently in the process of procuring my Nottingham ultimate frisbee swag. I'm going to have a new warm up suit when I come home that I am planning on never taking off. Get ready family. It's green yellow and black.
Laters,
Genie

I Went A Walking

The last couple weekes have been full of travel. Two weekends ago our flat took a house trip to London for the weekend where we got a tour of Parliment, which was much better than expected. And we went to evensong at Westminster, where we saw Camilla!!! When we stood up for her to walk by she said thank you to our group! That's right, addressed by royalty! We got to do whatever we wanted that night. Some of us meet up with our friend Sachin who often frequents London, he took us to an Indian restraunt to eat and then we went to a bar where everyone was dressed up for the weekend before Halloween. We have all become very good at navigating the tube system even though I got stuck on a different car once.  The next day we got to do whatever we wanted as well, which involved a lot of indicision and walking but was very fun all the same.

The following Wednesday Philip and I went to Leicester for our assignment to travel to a town for a day trip. We went there and saw the towns Cathedral, it seems that every town has one. We also went to the Jewry Wall Museum which is full of Roman artifacts, and got into the site where they think they may have found Richard the III. We were not technically supposed to get so close to that site but the gate was open and there was no sighn. We got a couple of good shots of the site before being shooed away by some type of guard.  We also walked through the castle gardens and saw the mound where the castle had been built.  Eventually it started raining and Philip and I took cover in the mall, so we ended up shopping a lot and I bough a new scarf.

This past weekend I went up to Norwich which is about 2.5 hours away by train for the women's Frisbee regional tournament. I got bumped down to second team, but got appointed captain and it was really fun getting to know some different girls better! Our first team qualified for nationals and our second won the plate (got 9th) out of 11 haha.

This week is a reading week for two out of three of my classes, so I am done with class tomorrow. I think I might be coming down with something again as I cannot stay awake once I get home. Hopefully I can get a lot of my Greek reading done this week so I don't have to bring my book with me on break. Speaking of break, I cannot wait to see my parents!!!! Our plans are to go to Italy for two weeks then to meet Philip and Matt in Paris for a week, and then I will be staying at my friend Clair's house in Holland. Get pumped! Today is bonfire day so there have been tons of fireworks going off for the past couple of days. We are going down to the fair grounds to see some of them tonight.

Sorry for the brief sum up of what has been going on I promise Ill do better on our trip to bath this weeked.
Laters
Genie