The Lake District

So, Edinburgh was great. It is a pretty fun city with an absolutely beautiful view. I got sick Thursday night so I saw a lot of the inside of my bedroom but by Saturday evening I felt better. Sunday I just got the chance to walk around the city. I ate at the Elephant House (where the Harry Potter books were written/created), I saw Adam Smith's grave and got to walk down to Holyroot where the Queen comes to stay when she's in Scotland. It still amazes me how old the city is and how young America really is in comparison.
Monday, we took a three hour bus ride to the Lake District. We are staying in this amazing hostel on Derwentwater Lake, about three miles from Keswick. This is the place of the Romantic Poets. Dove Cottage, where Wordsworth lived, is at a nearby town and Coleridge actually stayed in the hostel we are staying in when it used to be this mansion. It is so beautiful here with so much nature all around us. A couple of us have been hiking almost every day after class, which has been wonderful. We walked around Falcon's Crag right behind the hostel, Catbells (which is pretty steep but it is the hike to go on in the Lake District. No kidding, Grannies and Kids were hiking up along with us!) and today a few of us left the hostel at 5:30am and walked to Castlerigg Stone Circle which is older than Stonehenge.
Every time I hike with my friends we always seem to take the wettest, muddiest path possible. I don't know how we manage to do it, but we do! My foot seems to find every single hidden puddle that it can possibly find. I'm not sure how, but we also seem to find the most difficult way to get to a given place. When we were hiking Falcon's Crag on Tuesday, we were hiking in gale force winds that almost knocked us down as we were coming back down! We had to almost run into the wind to get any headway and sometimes the wind was so strong, we took a few steps back instead of forward! It was great, though. :)
So the Hostel is actually a pretty nice hostel right by the lake. All 18 girls got stuck into this huge dorm-size room, though. It's actually worked out pretty well for us. At least I've been able to sleep very well every night although, that could have possibly something to do with all of the exercising we are getting here. I am enjoying it so much and we've been meeting a couple of really nice families that are staying at the hostel. There is one family that is from Belgium that is on vacation. They have one son, Kobe, who we have been playing pool with. He was playing with his father and then saw Jill and I playing so asked if he could play us. He's 12 years old and speaks 4 languages. Amazingly, he wasn't taught English at school but actually taught himself by watching TV (they have subtitles) and learning a little bit from other people.
Well, we are leaving the Lake District on Sunday (which is sad) and we are taking a three and a half hour bus ride to Liverpool. We are going to the Beatles Museum at 3:00 and then flying out of Liverpool to Dublin on Monday afternoon. I am really excited about it all. We also might take tomorrow to see a play that is in town which is supposed to be fabulous. The rest of the day looks like it's going to be full of homework and reading. There's always a lot to do but it's probably the best way to finish off my Senior year.
I hope that everyone is well
-K