Cambridge and Dove Cottage.

 Today was the first day of the North trip! I cannot believe that it is already here. It means the program is ending which just makes me sad, but that is something to dwell on later. We started our journey by heading to Cambridge. There we were met by an LDS professor and some students on the Cambridge program. We sat in a chapel in one of the colleges and discussed the history of the college. It is eight hundred years old and was formed by disgruntled Oxford professors. They have one of one attention and just an entirely different system of learning. It was cool to learn about. Then we split into groups and the Cambridge students took us out punting. Some of the other kids did other things but most of us went punting.

So what is punting? It is riding in a flat bed canoe that uses a pole to push yourself along the river. Realistically it was more like bumper boats. It was so funny. In my boat was Scotty, Ali, Chelsea, Taylor and Cory (female). She was our Cambridge student who kinda gave us a tour of the buildings we managed to float by. We really didn’t manage to punt so far but it was just so much fun. Chelsea tried to punt and we ended up zigzagging the river and hitting the wall on both sides. It was so funny. Ali was freaking out and kept yelling “Taylor, take over, Taylor!” He just laughed and didn’t move. When we turned around I went to the front of the canoe and totally got another Pocahontas picture! Its funny how it is so easy to take pictures as her. It was so much fun but we were so late. We got back to the coach 20 minutes late, but it was so worth it. We then went to a wonderful memorial to American troops from WWII. It was really touching and really cool to see our troops honored here.

Scotty punting us with Taylor and Chelsea.

Part of the WWII tribute to American Troups

After Cambridge we drove to Grasmere where we split into two groups. My group went to Dove Cottage, which was the home of Wordsworth. We actually had dinner in this cottage out of the cookbook they would have used. It was really yummy. We then recited poetry and just enjoyed the atmosphere of the Lake District. I cannot describe to you how beautiful it is here. I am enjoying so much just basking in the beauty of this countryside. We are staying in a hostel in Ambleside which is right next to Grasmere or maybe even part of the town. I don’t really know, but it is probably 15 minutes from the cottage. After checking into our hostel Paul, Kristina, Kaitlyn, Jace and I walked through the town.

Dove Cottage

Paul reading poetry where Wordworth stood.

We walked until we found a church and we went through the graveyard. It was really neat to just walk through it as the sun was setting. Oh, before that, our hostel is located on the lake so we took tons of pictures. We even went out onto a pier and I got a great picture of Kristina and Paul gazing into the beauty. Paul decided that they needed dramatic dialogue and this is what I heard: “Oh, Tina…why did you eat the last cookie?” “Paul, I just don’t know. I could not control myself”. I was laughing really hard. Apparently he said her full name I just didn’t hear it. It was so funny. It is very gorgeous here. I am excited to spending tomorrow here.