My Toes Touch the Atlantic

There have been so many times that I just can't believe that I'm actually here, and this trip was full of them. The whole trip west was just incredible. We went to Cornwall for three days and hit up Penzance, Exeter, and Lyme Regis. They were basically all super sweet coastal towns. We were really lucky too, because the whole time we were there the skies were perfect and blue, which never happens in England.

We'll do bullets again because I'm lazy.

• the Bus-- We were in it forever. There were some good moments though, like when we sang Beatles songs in the English countryside and watched movies and saw all the places we had just been.
• Stourhead Estate-- This was the first place we went to, and honestly no pictures or words could do the beauty of this place justice. I took pictures of the views and it seriously looked like someone had drawn the buildings on a piece of cardboard and stuck it in between the trees. We decided to take pictures every two steps anyways though. Since I'm in this program with a ton of English majors they got really excited about the fact that Pride and Prejudice was filmed there and acted out a bunch of scenes from the movie, which was pretty entertaining.
• Hardy Country-- Again since I'm in this program with a ton of English majors, we went to the cottage that Thomas Hardy grew up in. It was seriously tiny. The roof was only a few inches from the top of my head, and my feet were twice as long as the stair steps allowed for. It was pretty cute though, and it was dun because we had to walk down a little road to get to it. The garden out front was beautiful and home to a bunch of bees. As a note to Mr. Duncan, I was very glad that we read Return of the Native so I could actually appreciate being there.
• The YMCA-- Our first hostel experience of the semester was at the YMCA in Penzance. We pretty much took the place by storm since there are 41 of us. I'm pretty sure that the people who stay there regularly were terrified of us. Ok, maybe not. But we were really loud. After listening through the door to the steel drum band practicing we decided to move our troops out to wander the coast at night. Basically we walked around because everything closed early, but the sea air was nice and refreshing after sitting in the bus forever.
• Beach Number One-- After breakfast we packed back into the bus for a short drive to the beach in Penzance. The world decided that it loved us, and we had the first true day of blue sky. The English coast was nothing like I thought it would be. As soon as we came over the rocks and could see the ocean it just glittered. The water was crystal clear, and the sand was cool because it was like a bunch of tiny pieces of shell. It was there that my toes touched the Atlantic ocean for the first time. It's funny, because I always thought that I would do that on the East coast, not in England. I'm pretty sure that we could have spent forever on that beach. Everything was perfect. We decided to go on a little hike up the rocks (barefoot!) to see some more of the coast and of course that was incredible too. We took a thousand pictures every two steps and just enjoyed being there instead of in a classroom.
• St. Micheal's Mount-- The whole trip we just went from one beautifully amazing place to another and this was no exception. This place is basically a castle on this island-type thing that you can only walk to during low tide, otherwise you have to take a boat. We took lots of fun castle pictures and saw lots of old stuff. A fun fact, people actually still live there. Could you imagine giving someone directions to your house? I can see it now...
• Exeter-- We stayed here the second night so that we wouldn't have to drive as far back to London the last day. We got there just in time for dinner, so they dumped us off at the Quay to scavenge for food. We found this amazing little restraint that had fantastic pizza and an even better view of the river and people kayaking. The whole setup was fabulous. Then we went to the Youth Hostel that was outside of town and did absolutely nothing. A bunch of people decided to be studious for once and read the Moonstone, which is due for class next week. Not exactly epic. In the morning we got to go to Exeter Cathedral though, which was pretty cool. All of these sweet old churches aren't getting old. Well, they are old. But you know what I mean.
• Lyme Regis-- More beach! I love the beach. We had a good amount of time to spend there so we did some shopping (I bought a ring from a fossil shop), ate fish and chips, took pictures (of course), and went for a stroll. We had another Jane Austen moment (these English majors find them everywhere in England) when walked on the Cobb because of a scene from Persuasion that we reenacted and documented. The best part was probably when we just at at the end of the Cobb and looked at the Ocean. Somehow almost everyone in the program ended up there including the professors and we just talked and stuff. Somehow the conversation even ended up with the professors quoting Monty Python. I had another one of those moments where I couldn't believe that I was actually there, and I would have been perfectly happy if that moment lasted forever.
• Jersey Boys-- OK, so this was totally before we left for the trip, but it still relates because I went and saw it instead of packing. By the way, I packed everything for the trip in just my backpack. I think I deserve some sort of an award.

You guys are really lucky today, because I decided to post about a thousand of the 20 million pictures we took to show you how beautiful it really was.

At Stourhead Estate. They filmed the last Pride and Prejudice here.

This place was so beautiful that all of my other pictures looked fake.

Our bus taking over the tiny little country roads.

The Penzance YMCA (where we spent the night).

My first time in the Atlantic!

This was much better than sitting in class in Provo.

Apparently pirates frequented the Cornish Coast.

Us and the scenic cliff.

Look at how clear the water is!

The Castle on St. Micheal's Mt. You can only walk there when the tide is out.

More castle.

The cute little restaurant we ate at in Exeter.