old man coniston

hellooo from the lake district (otherwise known as cumbria)! we are currently in coniston, home of john ruskin, donald campbell - the guy who died in the attempt to break his own water-speed record - and old-man coniston, a big mountain.

sooooo my program is over. last saturday night we had a farewell dinner/speeches/dance in the church, all of which were amazing. we had a great time together, even though we knew in 2 days we had to leave. sunday was packing and watching across the universe with bee, beth, alisha and gabi, then a last gathering at sharon and jodi's. in the morning lee drove me down to the bus and then we all had to say goodbye. now, i'm not talking an ordinary, "i'm so sad", kind of goodbye. this was more like heartbreak. i've never seen anything like it. terrible. but we decided it's not the end, because we all have cars etc., so why should it be? anyways... yeah. i'm going to miss charlbury and everyone who was there with me.

so we took the coach to heathrow, where gabi and i ran to catch the tube and made it to our 11am bus in central london about 1101, and the driver was about to leave.... anyways we were thankful that God is good to us. after a looooong bus trip up to kendal we walked around and got to our first hostel!

this whole week in the lake district has been nothing but AWE-INSPIRING. i've never seen anything so beautiful. it reminds me of up-north in ontario, like muskoka, except about 3000 times better. you look up and see mountains, you look down and see lakes. gabi and i have set new walking/hiking records for ourselves. we went on this 6 mile hike around grasmere and decided to climb this mountain in the middle of it (with many breaks on the way up). it was a "the hillllls are aliiiiiive" and chariots of fire moment. incredible. between walking and hiking we've seen some great stuff too, like dove cottage (william wordsworth's home) and castles and galleries and so much more.

we've also fallen in love with lambs. everywhere you look there are lambs (it's spring!) we never get tired of them.

so this morning we are off to hawkshead, where we will have our fill of beatrix potter related entertainment/learning, and then back to kendal, where we will catch our bus back to london tommorow and then spend the night, and then fly to berlin! berlin should be... tremendous. but a bit scary. we found this way to munich where you hop in someone's car for 25 euro and they drive really fast...... yeah. alright!!!!

so off on our journeys we go. it's been so great so far, i'm hoping there are no glitches.

oh and for you beatrix potter fans, we found peter rabbit. no, actually. in windermere we went on a hike and a baby bunny was right there and i picked it up and cuddled it and everything. needless to say, that made our trip.

pip pip!

p.s. i'm so excited to see everyone in less than TWO WEEKS!
p.p.s. robyn and jacq, i will both walk and rollerblade, as long as one of you goes on a hike with me.