Hey Everyone!

Sorry I didn't post last night! I actually do have Wifi at the new hostel in Bristol but I had so much reading last night that I wasn't able to post. Yesterday we started the day early by checking out of our flats in London and shlepping all of our suitcases to Paddington station, yes the station that the Paddington bear is named after. We were able to get all of our suitcases onto the train successfully and sat back to enjoy a relaxing two hour train ride. Upon arrival in Bristol, we had to drag all of our suitcases on a 15 minute walk to the youth hostel, which I was exhausted by the end of. We then had time to go to lunch. Most of us chose to go to a little open air market that served lots of exotic hot foods. A bunch of us had "life changing" falafel that was so delicious! 

After lunch and settling into our rooms, we walked across the street to the Museum of Bristol and got a short tour by a man named Edson Burton. He was actually extremely boring and I really didn't enjoy that part of the day. Everything was worth it though because we went out for French food last night. I had steak and chips, which was amazing! We ended the night by reading the two lengthy readings due for class as a somewhat small group. 

This morning we were all refreshed and set out on what turned into a hike all uphill to Cabot tower, built to commemorate John Cabot's achievement of finding Newfoundland. It was absolutely exhausting and I felt like I was having a heart attack! haha Everything was worth it for the views we got of Bristol. After a brisk walk down, we stopped at the Georgia House, which was where John Pinney, a prominent plantation owner, had his house. He was also the main focus of one of our readings from last night. We enjoyed discussing him and speculating about his life. When we finished at the Georgia House, we proceeded to John Wellesley's New Room (sort of a church) where we discussed the second reading we had last night. John was a methodist, abolitionist preacher. 

We then broke for lunch where many of us returned back to the open air market. I decided to get a mushroom and chicken pie, which was sort of like a pot pie. I loved it!! We met back at the hostel where we set out for the SS Great Britain, a revolutionary ship that was able to transport many people to Australia during the gold rush. It was really interesting and we really enjoyed being able to explore the boat! A cool experience was that they built sort of a cave-like thing underneath the boat so you could go below the water and see the bottom of the ship and look up at it from under water. Dr. Bell also thrilled us by putting on yet another dress up costume. Many of my classmates donned outfits and climbed aboard a pretend ship to "discover" America! Always keeping things interesting! We are actually having an impromptu group meal tonight at an asian fusion place, which I am thrilled about (as you can imagine!) Tomorrow we will be spending the day in Bathe and I am so super excited! Having the most amazing time and wish you could all be here with me!!