Capsized in the Lake District!

Yes, Karen, Katie, and I climbed a tree...

View from my Run on the First Morning

There were LOTS of sheep! I spoke to them, and they ran to me!

This past week, I have been very busy with school work, lots of paper writing, and studying.  Each assignment seems to make the week busy and fly by even faster!  This week, I also went to my host family's and spent time with their grandson Harry!  I got to read him bedtime stories, and we sang Old McDonald had a farm repetitively, which was ADORABLE.  This weekend, my travels stayed in England, but we moved northwest to the Lake District.  We stayed in a small town called Ambleside in a hostel that was right on a lake with a beautiful mountain background.  Activities of the weekend included shopping, eating great food (which included an amazing hostel breakfast as well as Katie, Karen, Albert, and I doing some cooking), scenic runs, hiking up the mountains, kayaking, and ghyll scrambling. The atmosphere of the town was very fun because it was very outdoorsy.  Almost all of the shops sold gear for about any sort of outdoor adventure you could ever dream of.  It was VERY tempting to buy a backpack for backpacking; however, I was able to resist!  The kayaking on the lake was also very beautiful!  It, however, ended up being a very wet experience, as I fell in the lake after about ten minutes of being in my kayak while we were playing a competitive game.  What a shocker....me, competitive? NEVER!  I was attempting to steal a rock off the back of Dr. Taylor's kayak, and I was leaning towards his boat, he paddled away, and I fell in, camera in my pocket and all.  Fortunately, my camera was in a plastic bag within my waterproof jacket, so it survived being submerged!  After the previous evening having already jumped into the lake for kicks and giggles and "because we are only in the lake district once," I truly felt that I had gotten my fill of the chilly lake in the overcast, 50 degree weather!  Ghyll scrambling was a very interesting experience, at points fun, but at others terrifying.  If you can imagine a large creek in the smoking mountains with waterfalls and trying to climb up them through the water, that is precisely what we did.  When there wasn't a large falls area and we were just climbing over rocks and wading through the water, it was a very cold, yet fun experience.  When they harnessed me and told me to scale a 40 foot waterfall, right through the middle of the "slippy" (slippery) falls, it became quite scary.  About two thirds of the way up, I got stuck and was unable to find a place to put my feet, which left me stuck in the cold current for about five minutes, I literally froze in place, may or may not have shed a few tears of panic, and had to be rescued by one of the guides.  Needless to say, ghyll scrambling was not quite my favorite activity, but it was still overall a very positive experience prior to climbing the waterfall.  To conclude the trip, we spent Sunday afternoon in Keswick, where I visited Hope Park, saw more beautiful views, and enjoyed a nice lunch out.  Overall, the lake district trip was wonderful, and beautiful.  I also enjoyed it because it was a large school sponsored trip, so it allowed me to spend time with a lot of different classmates throughout the weekend and get to know some people better.  It was nice to enjoy the nature and get away for a relaxing, laid back weekend!

Beautiful Views!

Hiking! 

Chicken Curry, Rice, Fried Bananas, Salad, and Bread=YUMMY!