Lots-o-Rocks!

Captains Log: Its almost 1pm and yes... I am still alive. Killing time before our field trip orientation.

I know its been a while since I last wrote, but we have been extremely busy with a lot of things. I was trying to finalize my week break, and stay ontop of school stuff.

Last weekend we went to Hadrians Wall and walked along a portion of it. It was moreso a hike than anything because when it was built, they followed the lay of the land and some hills were quite steep. We passed "The Robin Hood" tree....apparently in Prince of Theives, there is a scene where Robin Hood rescues a man out of a tree, and we passed that, so that was kinda cool i guess. We made the hike in just under an hour, and a couple of us raced to the finish, becuase it made it more fun for some reason.

We couldnt have asked for a better weekend for our field trip. We have lucked out with some gorgeous days so I hope that keeps up. After Hadrians Wall, we went to the notorious Lake District in eastern England. It was stunning. This region is surrounded by craigs (bigger than a bluff--yet smaller than a mountain) and it makes this area unique. I went on a motor boat tour around a lake in Keswick for an hour and just enjoyed the scenery. We also went to the school house where Woodrow Wilson went to school, and some went to the Beautrix Potter Gallery. The Lake District was extremely quaint and a typical little village. We also visited a Prehistoric henge of stones ( a circle of rocks....much littler than Stone Henge). In Keswick we also climbed a craig which was a lot tougher than a lot of us originally thought. The climb took us about 45 minutes, but some points in it seemed straight up. We met a little English boy named Michael on the way up, and he was about 9. He was really funny, and just climbing and jumping around the whole way. He was fascinated that there were so many Americans around him.

A couple nights ago we had a fire in the pasture again. We had almost 25-30 people there. It was awesome. we had about 5 locals hang out with us for the night and a couple of the interns here at the castle who eat with us came down. Another group of students from Ole Miss have arrived and are here for about 2 weeks. We wont see much of them though becuase our break week starts Saturday!

Last night Bri and I had the opportunity to go to the beach again with my local friend Chaz. Its EXTREMELY weird riding in a car on the left side, without having a wheel or pedals in front of you, and looking up and noticing the rear view mirror is facing the wrong direction, so you cant see out. It was a fun experience though. Chaz has a little 2 door toyota yaris (? not sure on model) and we went to Loughonton Beach. We climbed around on some rocks there and just relaxed for a while.

Last Saturday we all went to the Lemon (a local pub) to watch the USA vs. England World Cup game. It was crazy! We thought we were going to get assaulted just being American. I had a wager going on with two local friends I met, and Im glad we tied, because I saved on two pints =^]. Tomorrow I plan on going out again to watch the England vs. Algeria game. I think I can actually wear my English football jersey to that game, and not have any problems.

We are off to Holy Island tomorrow, and then Saturday I am leaving Alnwick at 8:30AM for Newcastle to catch my flight to Prague. Ill be in Prague for three nights, and then I am off to Mykonos, Greece for 4 nights. I cannot wait to lay on the beach and just relax and have "Zac time". I will try to post more frequent over break week because my rooms should have wifi access, if not, the lobby will have internet I can use. I will post pics up from Hadrians Wall and the Lake District after our field trip orientation.

Cheers!