Simply Rachel: Long Days

Yesterday we went on this 9.6 mile walk through the countryside with the Chittock brothers. George Chittock is this cute old man who used to be the stake president of the Hyde Park stake. He's older now and he and his brothers (both so adorable) took us on this walk through the countryside. It was absolutelt beautiful but also cold and exhausting at the same time. I am glad I did it but with the amount of homework and studying I have to do this week it sort of just added to my stress load. It was worth it though. We all wore the most heinous outfits though. Running shoes and skinny jeans. Not a good combo when you have been adding weight to your thighs by every minute you've been here.

So this morning I think I had a anxiety attack. There is just so much expected of us here and there is not enough time to complete it all. I am not sure what to do and I can honestly say that I have never had a more stressful semester. Don't get me wrong, I love it here. However, the work load for school is out of control and I know our director is concerned about what to do (he has made his classes easier in order to counteract the other teachers I think). So basically my day started off not so good. I finished up kitchen crew and got on the bus but decided that I couldn't mentally handle doing any more homework so I tried to just sort of de-stress with some church music. It helped a little.

On our way out to Stourhead gardens we drove by stonehenge again. I keep remembering how disappointed I am at the size of it and how it is located right off the road. I feel like all my life the photos have been an optical allusion. It's actually not all that big. I mean sure pre-historic people without building tools assembled it which is way cool but the photos they show must be blown up like ninety billion times. All I am saying is don't get your hopes up too much for this English heritage site. Our first stop though was awesome. Stourhead gardens must be spectacular in the summer because it was spectacular in the bare winter. One bad part: the temple of Apollo which is featured in the new Pride and Prejudice movie with Kiera Knightley, was closed with scaffolding all over it. At least one place on each day trip has scaffolding. Sort of disappointing. But the gardens were still gorgeous.

Next we went to Jane Austen's house which I loved. It's in this tiny town of Chawton and it's well preserved and not touristy. They gave us these cool booklets there because it it the 200 anniversary of her birth? death? first publication? I am not sure. The tiredness has been catching up to me a ton today. Besides the cool site visits it has been a rather awful day. Next we went to Winchester cathedral where Jane Austen is buried. It's another wonderfully beautiful cathedral. I am hitting the point with the cathedrals that feels like you've seen one and you've seen them all. But I can't have that attitude because each one really is cool and has a lot to offer. So far none beat the one we saw in Toledo though. That was magnificent beyond all descriptions.

After a long bus ride (over 6 hours in the coach) with the bus driver Tony who chooses to give useless bits of information over the loud speaker while you are trying to study or sleep, I was rather tired out. We ate and Nando's for Kalyn's birthday and now I am blogging and going to bed. I've got a cold coming on and two tests this weekend. Pray for me because I am not sure how I am going to pull this one off. Next week will be the ultimate reward though: Paris.