Day 17

Today we went on a day trip with the whole class. Oh the joys of being on a bus again, I just love it to death. We left at 8 and first drove for about an hour and a half to Chawton, the town where Jane Austen spent some of her life and published many of her famous works. We went to the Austen home there, which they have turned into a museum-type place and tells the story of her life and her family. They had some cool stuff in there like paintings by her sister Cassandra, letters from Jane to people, and one of my favorites, a list/description of all the men Jane had romances with. Although I did find out that the movie Becoming Jane is totally not real at all- she and Tom LeFroy never had a huge secret romance like it shows you in the movie. So Erin (if you are reading this) you don’t have to be so sad about the ending anymore, because it isn’t even real. Robyn and I also bought some amazing postcards that our mothers and my sister should be expecting soon if they have not already received them. The garden/yard around the house is also very beautiful- it has tons of pretty flowers and grass. The countryside around in the the area is amazing and green. I would love to live there and I can see how it would help her with her writing- it is very inspirational to be around that kind of scenery. After we looked around we went across the street to a little tea shop called Cassandra’s Cup (ha!) for some hot chocolate and scones since it was a drizzly and a little bit chilly day. It kills me (in a good way) that I have to wear a sweater in the middle of July when at home I would be in shorts and a t-shirt. But the place was really cute and had tons of cool tea cups hanging on the ceilings.

After we had finished in Chawton, we drove another 2 hours on over to Salisbury Cathedral, which is very large and imposing and to me seems a little bit out of place in the landscape. It is famous for apparently having the tallest church spire in the UK as well as having the world’s oldest working clock. We also saw a second copy of the Magna Carta and I thought this one was way cooler than the one at the British Library, mainly because you could actually see the writing on this one. Not that I can read it, since I can’t read Latin. Our last stop of the day was Stonehenge. I decided that after you have seen it once, it is never as exciting again. Don’t get me wrong, Stonehenge is cool and worth visiting, but since I have already seen it it wasn’t so exciting to me. Also it was sooo windy! I played a game at one point to see how ridiculous a picture I could take with the hair in my face. I did enjoy listening to the audio guide however. They have very helpful songs and noises to make you feel as though you are in the time when they are building Stonehenge, including clanking hammers and people chanting. After we walked around we tried to go into the shop but it was completely packed by school children, which I have found to be the bane of my existence this trip. Once we got home we were too tired to do anything else so we just relaxed and talked to some girls from our program. It was all in all a pretty good day.