It was about a two hour bus ride to Canterbury, during which I read a good portion of Perelandra. Our first stop was Dover Castle. The professors told us to get off the bus and take some pictures, and we thought they meant for us to go looking for the famous White Cliffs. A group of boys stampeded off the bus and down a trail, and we thought they knew where they were going, so we followed. About 10 minutes of walking proved to us that they didn't. This also would have been fine, if by the 5th minute I didn't start having stabbing pains in my throat and chest from breathing in all the cold air. Also, some of our boys decided that it was a good idea to hop a fence off the trail and scale a huge muddy hill (that was almost straight up). And those of you who know me, you know I have no sympathy for those shenanigans! I asked Jase if we could head back to the bus, and he sweetly obliged. About here, I started to get freaked out because I realized that I just could not spend the rest of the day outside with this chest pain! I was even carrying a bottle of cough syrup with me and taking swigs off of it the whole day, but that barely helped.. Anyway, by the time we reached the bus, we realized that we weren't supposed to even step away from the bus by that much. As for the boys who scaled the mountain, we had no idea how they were going to get down.... and then they came back last, all with mud all down their backsides. Yeesh. No wonder Europeans hate Americans.
Jase and I at Dover Castle
We piled back on the bus and headed to the coastline there in Dover, which was so pretty. We took pictures for about five minutes, touched the English Channel and all that jazz, and then got back on the bus and headed to Canterbury.
On the coastline
At Canterbury, which is basically a shopping center, we all got off the bus and were told to meet at the Cathedral at 3:15. Jase, Lydia, Caitlyn, Megan, and I shopped around for a while, giving me momentary relief from chest pain every time we could step indoors! We found some fun stores, one of which was a really funky store where I bought a huge world map for 4 pounds. (Jase was sad because they were out of Middle-Earth maps). We ate at another pub for lunch and I had some tomato soup, hoping it would help! Lydia was the first of us to order a meat pie (it was chicken and mushroom) and she said it was delicious, so I'll have to try one soon. Jase tried some sort of grilled fish over potatoes and he loved it, too.
We met at the Cathedral, and our little tour guide, Nan, was a hoot. She must have had some terrible American groups before us, because she kept on saying her generalizations of Americans and applying them to us... she started out by saying, "Now, I know all American babies are born with gum in their mouths, but it's not allowed in the Cathedral, so spit it out in the rubbish bin before you go in!" She would ask us if we knew information about all the archbishops and then go, "Oh, you don't know, do you?" or "Now I know it's hard for you to picture a world before the 11th century, but in the 6th century..." or "In our country in this time, we were building great buildings like this! What were you doing in your country at that time? Bows and arrows and whatnot?" Yeesh, hahaha. But I really liked her; she was funny and she was a great story-teller.
Nan, our tour guide!
The Cathedral really was amazing... this church is technically the head of the Anglican Church, the Church of England. Though most parts have been burnt down and rebuilt, there are still sections with the original architecture. I have slowly learned that, anytime a tour guide or teacher tells you about some amazing relic, don't get your hopes up, you can't see it. Because it was most likely destroyed or torn apart during the reign of Henry VIII. HENRYYYYYYY........ Yeesh.
The Cathedral from the outside
We learned from Nan all about the murder of St. Thomas Becket, one of the Archbishops of Canterbury. We stood in the same spot that he was murdered by four knights... it was very fascinating.
Memorial to commemorate Thomas Becket's murder
After our tour, we stuck around to go to Evensong. The choir was very lovely, and it was nice to just sit and listen to them.
The Cathedral at dusk
When it was over, we grabbed some dinner very quickly and hustled back to the bus... I was very glad to get home. Jase, the sweet man that he is, rushed out when we got back to get me some more cough syrup. I'm resting today, hoping to get better quickly!!! Those of you reading from Texas, I miss you! Mom and Dad, hope you're doing well!! Miss you guys, and today I'm really craving a Sharky's burrito. Hahaha. Love you all!
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