Pip Pip Cheerio!

We made it to England! Cheerio! This morning after waking up at some obscene hour of the morning we got on a bullet train and headed to our next stop, Bath, England. We were only on the train for about an hour and a half and on it we had a quiz that was way harder than it should have been. There is just one week left of the trip and I'm starting to be grateful I didn't sign up for the usual 6 week summer program. All the constant traveling and attempted learning is exhausting, and it doesn't help that I never had time to recover after finals week either. We never have enough space or stay somewhere long enough to unpack and we have to eat out every meal every day. Home, Charley, and my cloud-like bed are all sounding pretty good about now. But, our bus driver today absolutely raved about how fun London is going to be so I'm excited to finally make it there! There is a big soccer game playing tomorrow night so everyone is going to go to a pub and watch it with the British people and their fun accents 😎 

Studying on the train 

I'm going to rant about my teachers real quick. The same two teachers have been leading the trip for the last 15 years together; we are going to call them Jim and Bob. Jim teaches the upper level horticulture class and LOVES plants. He is always talking about how gardens should make you feel and telling us to discover ourselves. Bob teaches the classics class. He spends every summer in Europe and averages 7-9 espresso shots a day. Bob talks a mile a minute (which should come as no surprise to someone who drinks that much espresso) and can be known for being condescending to us students when we ask basic questions. He makes up for these minor flaws by sitting at the front of the bus while we sit with our notes and write down 5 things we have learned to count as our quizzes. There is more work that we need to do after the trip, but he understands that with all the traveling we do, along with the insane amount of new info he throws at us, it would be hard to absorb everything. Jim on the other hand does no such thing and makes his quizzes way harder than necessary. We don't have a real textbook for this class and we can only study the notes we get from his lectures. Even the students majoring in horticulture are taken aback by the quizzes. I was also very surprised by how unapproachable the teachers were outside of the classroom, they both seem like they would be very personable. I have been in groups of 2-3 students and just them before, walking around gardens, and not once have they asked a student about their personal life or attempted to get to know them. Usually this isn't the biggest deal, they aren't here to be our friends, but they get very snappy about little things and it comes across as very rude especially when there is no relationship built there. A few times I have reached out to them but they were very cold with their answers and made it so where I felt uncomfortable to ask more. I just find it strange that both teachers are this way. Janae made the comment that Jim calls himself a "compulsive teacher", and always talks about how he loves teaching, but I think that lots of people would agree that a teacher is more than someone who can regurgitate information. I would never say this to them, I don't even know if they've remembered my name, but I feel like the trip would be more enjoyable if the teachers tried to get to know the students at least a little bit. And not just the students who have similar majors so they can talk more about their subjects. Ok I am done. They can be really nice too though sometimes!!  

We walked around two really pretty gardens today. It's also freezing here though so I was too bundled up to take notes. I need to find some gloves ASAP. Compared to some other people here though I am golden! One girl only brought one pair of jeans... Clearly her weather channel app was not working when she was packing for the trip. We were in a bus for about 5 hours after the train ride, one hour between gardens and about 4 to the hotel. All I have to say about that it PTL. (Praise the lord). For some reason all vehicles now put me to sleep so whenever we have more than 30 minutes I am out. 

England countryside 

Stonehenge - not that cool looking - pretty small 

The first garden is apparently the second most famous garden right behind Versailles. It had a castle and multiple different sections throughout the garden. I feel bad for not appreciating it like other people but flowers just don't do it for me. Shout out to my mom though, she would love it. The second garden was more like a park so it was really fun to walk through! I think it is one of my favorites along with a few in Italy. I still don't care about plants, but I love a good view! 

Harry Potter is in just two more days!!' Woohoo!!! Ok time to sleep again, first time in bed before 1:00 am almost all trip YAY! 

*** in deep dark depression right now because my favorite vampire diaries character went shopping in Paris on the same street I was on yesterday AND IM NOT THERE ANYMORE. WHY ME. WHY.  ***

On that note, time to cry myself to sleep. Goodbye. 

~emily