First off I want to apologize for my blog being messed up. I don’t know why but it won’t let you blow up the pictures. I’ll upload them as larger pictures so maybe you can see them better. Sorry.Anyway, Today we started out the day by meeting at 6:40 at the train station for a trip to Wilton House.
Linds, Ali, and I had to get out morning pick me up with an apple muffin and hot chocolate. The weather is crazy! One second you can look out the window and see the sun shining. Then we walk down the stairs and its pouring outside. Really bizarre. Anyway we were on the bus and I smiled at the little old lady sitting next to me and she got all excited and started talking to me. She was so sweet. I’ve met some very sweet British people while we’ve been here. Anyway, she was very excited for us to see Wilton House. We went to the stables, which has been converted into a visitors center and we watched to introduction video. 
The video shows a ghost nun talking about the home’s history. It was a very poorly done video and very funny. The Wilton house is the home of the Earl of Pembroke. The earl that lives there now is the 18th and is very attractive, but recently got engaged. Too bad. After the movie we had the most adorable older tour guide names Joce(I think that’s how she spelled it). She gave us a tour around the home and then into the gardens. She took us over the bridge that was designed by the same man who designed the Rialto bridge in Venice. We then made our way back to the restaurant where they had pastries and lemonade waiting for us. I had an nice warm cinnamon roll. I was happy with that conclusion to the visit. We then went to the Salisbury Cathedral. 
We took a tour with a man who was very excited to tell us all about his funny stories of the Cathedral, and also throw in a little casual swear every now and then. And then we went above the church into the rafters. I’m scared of heights and the fact that this church was built in the 1200’s makes me even more nervous about being in the ceiling of the church. But it is really amazing that they did such an amazing job of building it that it still stands today and they were able to build it in 38 years. Pretty impressive if you ask me. 
But the stairs up to the base of the spire just about killed me. I they were so narrow, small, and high, I just about freaked out. We got to the top and there was a nice view of the town but I needed to have a good grasp on something to get near the edge (Ali is worse than I am so that made me feel better about being a baby about it ha). Anyway the spire is the tallest in the UK and just 4 feet short of one in Germany. After that we hiked back down and took some taxis to Stonehenge. It was weird because we were driving on a road in the country and you come over a little hill and it was right there, just next to the road.
Anyway it was fun to see it. We had an audio guided tour explaining logical and not so logical theories about how and why it is there. More logical: they rolled them on logs then hoisted them with levers and pulleys and had scaffolding. Not so logical: The devil came to an old poor woman who had the stones in her backyard. He made a deal with her that he would give her as much money as she could count while he moved the rocks. She knew that it would take a long time and she would become a very rich woman. But the devil scooped up the rocks and flew away leaving her with nothing. So it was a fun busy day!
Today we got to sleep in again. We had breakfast and then relaxed for a while. Church started at 2:30 so we finally got ready and left at 2:00. We found the church without any problems. It’s only about a 10 minute walk from out flat. I’m really glad we went. We haven’t been able to go for 3 weeks so this was really nice to do. 
All the talks were great and it was a pretty big young single adult ward. We went to Sunday school where this really happy British woman gave the lesson. She did a visual lesson where she had two people stand up and do some stuff and she gave one of the guys a huge chocolate bar. He was so nice and shared his chocolate with everyone. Haha if I would have gotten it I would have kept it. But then to top it off she also gave us all Bounty bars, which are almond joys without the almond. I want to come to church here every week.
It was fantastic! We came back to the loft and everyone helped me make dinner. We made chicken parmigiana and it was pretty good. Again, we had to improvise but I think it turned out really well considering that we had to make our own bread crumbs and the stove and oven sucks! 
I didn’t find anything at the tents that I really wanted but there was a little mall that we went into and we found a sale. I ended up getting four shirts for L30.00. I love them! Across the street there was a little Mexican restaurant. We have been wanted Mexican for a long time so we went over there to eat. Inside it was way smokey from the grill but we ordered anyway and sat down. 
It really wasn’t that great but we were happy with it just because it was Mexican food. I smelled like smoke the rest of the day. We went back to our flat and ate dinner. Then we went to the movie theater to see The Proposal. Unfortunately it was super expensive because this theater didn’t give a student discount. But the movie was funny. So it was a fun night. 
soccer games so the girls finally decided to get ready at about 7:30 to get some food. We left at about 8:30. Darrin had told us about an Italian restaurant around the corner from our flat. So we went over there and asked if they could seat the four of us. 
The guy looked at us and looked around the room and said, “No room.” And walked away. Ha! I was so surprised. I’ve never been turned away like that before. It wasn’t even, “Sorry. No room. Come back in 30 minutes.” Just no. haha. So then we tried to go to a burger place and that was full. So we went to another Italian restaurant. It was a mediocre meal. I got the ravioli. It was basically pasta stuffed with ground beef and then ground beef piled on top. On the menu it said beef with pancetta so Kaitlyn asked what pancetta was and the guy looked around and responded with, “Umm, it’s something Italian I’m sure.” Haha. We’re pretty sure he had just 
walked in there and put and apron on. It was funny. We ordered cheesecake after that. That was the best part of the meal. We headed back after that. It was kind of a boring day but it was nice to be able to just relax.
The pictures just show our flat and also us not getting ready for the entire day! Note the glass door looking into our room. We tried to hang out towels up to block it. But I don’t know how well that works. Also, there are some sample pictures of the Ferraris we see parked outside our neighborhood every day along with the Rolls Royce’s, Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus’, and Range Rovers. No problem. 
We had to be at the train station at 7:00 in the morning and after having such a long day before we were all a little worn-out and tired. We got on the train heading to Cambridge. Once we arrived we walked two miles to get to our tour. Our group split into two and my half of the group ended up with the most adorable tour guide. She was a little old British lady named Sally.
She was so sweet and cute and my attitude changed as soon as she started on all of her little fun facts about the places we visited. The first place we visited was a little courtyard called the Eagle Pub where there is a restaurant where Watson came running in yelling that he found the meaning of life after he found DNA. It was also a place where American Soldiers came to eat and drink during the war. One soldier decided that he wanted to write his name on the ceiling that put wax over it and then thousands of soldiers after him did the same thing and it is still on the ceiling of the pub. We went around the campus and saw all the different colleges including King’s college, and the King’s college chapel (very pretty chapel). 
We went around town for a little bit. We found a street called “Jesus Lane”. Then Sally dropped us off at the pub to have a 2 hour lunch. Since we are in England we all got fish and chips(except Ali, she hates fish, Kait doesn’t like it either but we got her to order it). It was a full fillet of pure deep fried goodness. 
We got Ali to try it and she decided that she still hates fish. But Kait decided that it wasn’t that bad. She said, “I like it because it’s one more fish that is dead.” Ha. We met up with Sally again at the Fitz William Museum. Sally showed us the key points that she thought were worth talking about. We made our way outside of the museum just as it started raining and just as we were going to go to the canal to go punting. Punting is basically a gondola in the canal. After that we made our way back to the train station for the ride back. It was a long two days but worth it. 
We got up at 4:30 to get ready for our appointment with Brinton Carpets. We met at the train station at 5:30 and got on our way. We were supposed to dress up and look good but at 4:30 its hard to do anything right. But we did try. We took a two hour train ride and then a 45 minute bus ride to get there. Then we were greeted with some cookies, water, and a flash drive for all of us. We were split up into four groups and they had a schedule set up for each group. We started out by doing to tour of the factory. There were seven of us but they first guide said he could only take 5. So Linds and I got left behind. Another guy came to give us a tour. His name was Andy and he was really put out that he had to wear the neon yellow vest and ear plugs like the rest of us. He was really entertaining. It was kind of weird that it was only Lindsey and I but he was a good time. Then we went back into a room wh
ere one of the designers, John, talked to us more about what they do. They are one of the biggest carpet companies in the world. They do a lot of big hotels, a lot of cruise ships, and they also just did Buckingham Palace. Then it was time for lunch. They had made a variety of sandwiches and different British foods that weren’t exactly to my liking. And then many of us found places on the sofas or on the floor to take a nap. I woke up and looked around I saw Lind and ally asleep on Brady’s shoulder but I couldn’t see Kait. I looked down and she was under the table in the fetal position. It was really funny but I didn’t have my camera with me. After lunch we went to the Archive/Library. The lady there was so cute and showed us all of the old designs that they have found that date back to the 1700’s, and all of the different things that the library can help do. One cool thing that they do is when someone is restoring an old home or something they can come to her and she can show them what kind of carpet and styles were used during that time so that it can really be accurate. By the time the last hour came we were all exhausted but they were so nice and were showing us the sales and design part of it. They were so generous to let us come and it gives us a great reference as designers. I was so tired I was gone as soon as we got on the train to come back.
I was sick this day so it wasn’t my best day ever. We started out the day at a small museum call the Sir John Soane’s Museum. He was an architect in the 1800’s(I think). He traveled all around the world and collect things. He then started displaying them in his home and decided to turn his home into a museum. There were ancient artifacts like columns and a mummy tomb, and he also had a lot of artwork. It was a little museum but it was cool to see. We then went to the British Museum. It was basically the same thing except
on a much larger scale. By this time I was feeling really sick so we had a lunch break and went outside on some benches and tried to nap. After lunch we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Evidentially, if you go up into the dome you can whisper along the wall and a person on the other end of the dome can hear what you say. We heard one guy say something but none of us could get it to work. We were all cold and tired of our 
clothes so we went shopping for warmer clothes. I was not expecting cold wet weather in London but I guess I should have. We then went home and I was going to make soup and grilled cheese sandwiches but our stove top doesn’t work. So I had to be creative. So I got the water from the sink which is scalding anyway and put that in the oven to cook the noodles for the soup. Then I mixed the soup in with some scalding water. Then for the sandwiches I put the pan in the oven to get it hot and then grilled them in the oven. It was an interesting process but it worked. 
