Celtic Capers: UK excursion weekend part 2

So to resume the recap of the UK weekend, we were on the South Downs. My story for the South Downs is another story of how Catherine lost her phone. We were strolling along the hills, and our Resident Director encouraged us to let out our inner child and roll down the hill. Well, it doesn't take a lot to convince a bunch of college kids, and it was so much fun! However, someone while rolling, my phone, which I had forgotten was in my pocket, fell out and I didn't realize it was gone until later that night. Thought I had lost it for good, but thankfully a great guy found my phone, and thus the phone tag game started from him to my dad to me to my Resident Director back to me. I now have my phone back, but it really was an adventure for the books.

Later that day we stopped and toured Venessa Bell's house. For those that don't know, she was Virginia Woolf's sister and quite involved in the literary and art worlds in England at the time. Her house, which she and many of her artist friends decorated, was fascinated and strangely beautiful. I loved that everything was hand-done, from upholstery patterns to wall paintings, even a bathtub. It was easy to imagine the large and very nontraditional family actually living there, the space changing from year to year when they had a great idea or new style. That night we again had dinner at my Resident Director's house, which was lovely, and we planned all our trains for the next day.

On Sunday, we took a tour of the castle in Lewes, and climbed to the top, which had incredible views. We also walked around the town, and got to see all the historical buildings, like Tom Paine's house, and colorful gardens. Inside one of the castle rooms, there was a dress-up station, so our silliness from the South Downs returned. We all dressed as kights or princesses, and took a group photo. It was a blast!

After the castle, we made sandwiches at my RD's place and then headed out on what was supposed to be an hour walk along the hills just outside town. It was absolutely stunning, and we ate our lunch overlooking the most magnificent landscape. Plus, the weather was just perfect, temperate and sunny! However, the fun was cut a bit short when we realized we were significantly behind in timing, and I had to run with the RD down, back into town, and kept running without saying goodbye so I could catch my train. Well, I was running or spped walking along with one other girl who was supposed to catch the train with me, and we quickly raced to pick up our luggage from the hotel, got all the way down to the train station to find we had missed the train by 2 minutes. Literally, 2 minutes. So that was a bit disappointing, but then I had a good hour's chat with Jen, who was great to talk to, and we later met up with others that were on our walk who were taking the later train. I was a little nervous that I might not make the flight, but I knew I'd work it out one way or the other. And I was right. Thankfully, nothing else went wrong, and I arrived at the airport at 4:00 for a 4:40 flight, but I made it. Didn't have a lot of time to catch my breath, but I was so relieved I didn't have to deal with changing my flight and all.

Anyways, that was my adventure, and the next week in Dublin seemed a bit dull in comparison :)

Today I just got back from Scotland, which was also amazing. I know I'm a little behind in my blogging. I'll try to catch up this week, although it's another week of assignment after assignment. Thanks for your patience! Oh, and of course, Happy Halloween! I hear there's been crazy snow at home, but here it's just absolutely pouring all day. Still, everyone is getting dressed up and going out. I love all the decorations and spirit here, but they're lacking one key element: no trick-or-treating! Apparently they don't really do that in Dublin. What fun would Halloween be for kids? Still, I've loved baking and sewing my doll a witches costume, and carving my pumpkin! My roomies even carved me a pumpkin! (Their new nickname for me is HouseCat.)