Pictures! And what we did today!

Hello, family members, friends, and other assorted people!

I have a bit of a treat today; we've got pictures!

Today we drove out to Coolmore Stud, two hours away. Coolmore Stud is one of the biggest breeders of Thoroughbred racehorses in the world; they have over twenty stallions and between 600-800 mares at their Ireland farm alone (they also have farms in Australia and Kentucky).
On the way there, we ran into something that definitely doesn't tend to happen in America - there was a herd of Holsteins walking down the road!

It was pretty interesting, actually. I don't know if they were on a regular route to go be milked or what. There was one cow who had quite obviously freshened recently, with her newborn calf sticking close to her side, and some heifers at the back who were a little confused when they were confronted with our bus; they weren't really sure what they were supposed to do. Luckily they had a couple cows with them to help them out!

We found our way to Coolmore Stud eventually, and felt like we got a real treat; they took several of the stallions out of their stalls to let us take pictures and even gave us hats! We got to see quite a lot of the farm. It was much more than we were expecting.

We all enjoyed ourselves, even those who normally aren't into horses.

(and no, that's not an actual horse, it's one of the many statues around the farm)

We then drove to the Rock of Cashel, a castle that was used as a religious cathedral from the twelfth to eighteenth centuries. Unfortunately, it was very windy, and raining for the first part, so we didn't stick around up there too long. I slipped and went down on my side pretty bad; got mud all over my jeans!



After that, we toured the town of Cashel a bit before heading back to Dublin. Stephanie is getting a lot better at the "not getting lost" thing.

I'll try to get some more pictures up tomorrow!

Playing Catch Up

We're leaving for Coolmore Stud in a few minutes but I've finally found a place where I can get on the Internet for a few minutes.

We had an awesome time at the Royal Agricultural College. Everyone agreed it was just as good as staying in the castle. The buildings are generally really old (the college is 160 years old) and everyone got their own room. The first night, twelve out of the thirteen of us students crowded into one room and watched a movie on Lindsey's laptop. We were squeezed into every space available, but it was definitely a fun time.

We toured a local Hereford farm (they pronounce it "herry-ferd" over here, instead of "her-ferd") and the cattle people really enjoyed talking to the man who ran it about the differences in types of beef cattle. We also toured the college's horse farm, where they do a lot of boarding for polo ponies; polo is a big thing in the region. As a side note, they pronounced "equine" "eh-quine" instead of "e-quine."

Then we were taken on a tour of the college by Peter Morris, our contact over there. He was very gracious and told us a lot about the college, such as it was given a charter by Queen Victoria shortly after its founding, and Prince Charles is the current chairman of the board of directors, hence "Royal" Agricultural College. If you're ever in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, I highly recommend visiting, and I think everyone else agrees. We had a really great time.

Thursday, we got up early and drove to Holyhead, Wales, via Stratford-upon-Avon, which may ring a bell as the home of Shakespeare. Several students went through the museum, and I think the most startling/interesting fact for most was that when Shakespeare was married, he was 18 and his wife was 26 - and already three months pregnant! That sent a few eyebrows up.

We temporarily lost Stephanie again at Shakespeare's house, but we found her. Didn't take as long this time, either she's getting worse at getting lost or we're getting better at finding her!

We enjoyed going through Wales, there was a lot of really beautiful scenery, and sheep EVERYWHERE. Most of the ewes have already lambed, so you'd see the tiny, bright-white lambs playing in the pastures. There are snow-capped mountains and sheer cliffs that we also got to see. I think most of us considered it one of the prettier areas we'd had the chance of seeing.

The ferry ride to Ireland was quite interesting. The whole ferry tipped back and forth, which made walking a bit more of an exercise than usual. Most of the students stayed in the seats, but the few who ventured up on the main deck were rewarded by wind hard enough to nearly knock a person over. If you put your head over the rail, you got a faceful of salty Irish Sea spray. It was also very cold, but there were several who really enjoyed it. We were on one of the fast ferries, so we were moving at a pretty good rate, above 30 knots according to Paul, our driver.

We didn't get to Ireland until night had already fallen, so what little we saw of Dublin was mostly in the dark. We did see a famine ship replica and a memorial to the famine (and victims of it!). For those of you interested in movie stars, we also saw the apartment building where Colin Firth has a penthouse. Mr. Firth did not appear to be home.

There will be further updates later, now that I have access to a computer and the Internet, but we're currently about to leave for Coolmore Stud. We'll tell you how that goes.

Buckingham Palace, Kew Gardens

To start the day off, we met for breakfast. There was a bit of confusion among some of the students, because the hot breakfast was an extra three pounds ($6-ish). There was some dismay when they discovered that the scrambled eggs weren't included!

We went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, but for the second day in a row, we were getting covered in snow, which caused the changing of the guard to be canceled. We still got to see the mounted soldiers and get lots of pictures. We had a lot of fun looking around Trafalgar Square and the stables of the mounted guards. We did lose Stephanie, but it was only temporarily!

After that, we went grocery shopping. In the interest of saving money, we're buying sandwich fixings for several meals. We had a lot of fun seeing the difference in groceries, although we discovered through accident that they still have carbonated water here; nobody liked that, although Trey found it handy for cleaning his coffee mug.

Then we went to Kew Gardens. There was a ton of plants from every continent (that has plants). Although it was very cold outside, there were plenty of greenhouses to spend time in.

Afterwards, we went shopping for souvenirs, so some people will be getting some things!

Sorry for the short post, but we're pressed for time again. Tomorrow we'll be going to the British Natural History Museum and onto Stonehenge, ending up with the Royal Agricultural College.

Personal messages!

Chris - would like his mother to know that he loves her

Kate - would like to let her sisters know that she bought them London shirts (except Emily, who wanted money). And that she's going to continue looking for something for her mom, because her mom is very hard to shop for. And she's continuing to get a lot of pictures for her dad (and his elephant ears are about the same size as the ones at Kew Garden)

Jeremiah - Hey mom and bryan. England is beautiful. Everything is going great. The food is pretty intresting, but I like it. Tell Jess and the Andersons I said hi. Keep checking the blogs to get the latest. Love you all!

We made it!

I'm very sorry this isn't more detailed; I actually had a page and a half on Word, but computer problems meant that the computer I typed it on couldn't get on the Internet, and apparently it didn't save to the jump drive. The Internet connection here is extremely expensive, so I'll try to get it up in the limited time I have. Suffice it to say, we all made it. The first time fliers were a little nervous, and we had a bit of a rough flight going from Springfield to Dallas, but it was smooth after that. Clare thought that seeing the ground thousands of feet below was "just like Google Earth!" (what can I say, we are a technologically-advanced generation?)

Parents, you'll be glad to know that none of your children are suspected terrorists. I was nearly put on that list, because I took a picture of the plane, and apparently it's illegal. Um, if terrorists were planning on blowing up Boeing 777s would they get a college student to take pictures you can find on the Internet with a two-second Google search? I don't think so. A barrage of yelling from a British lady and a deleted photo later, I was able to escape with my reputation intact.

Trey made a friend. A lady from Glasgow was sitting across the aisle and talking to him on the flight. She gave him a Scottish one pound note. She owns a restaurant and had been in America for a few weeks, so Trey asked if she had tried Southern food. I interjected with "Like biscuits and gravy!" and her nose wrinkled up. "Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting," she said. We were amazed, considering the Scots eat HAGGIS. Trey was disappointed to find that she had tried almost no Southern food.

Everybody seems to be doing pretty good. We're all exhausted. We saw the Tower Bridge and toured the Tower of London. Lindsey Messick was one of the group that went to see the Crown Jewels and said they were really awesome and it was really neat to see them.

After that, we went to St. Paul's and attended the Evensong service. I wish I could give you some pictures of St. Paul's, but we weren't allowed to take them. It was very neat though, with the dome towering stories above your head, and gilding everywhere. The whole place seemed white and gold. The service itself was a bit mundane, although it was cool to hear the choir and the organ echoing throughout the building. We were all so exhausted that almost everyone fell asleep for a few minutes. It has given us a whole new view on chapel at CofO!

After that, it was an easy decision to go to the hotel. Our hotel is in the docks area, and it wasn't quite what we expected. We're afraid to touch much because they charge for everything (like the Internet!). Definitely not like the U.S. and we've learned to be grateful for what we have there (and it's only one day into the trip!). The rooms are quite small, maybe 10' x 14' and for the three girl rooms, we have two twin beds shoved against each other and one cot. There's barely space to walk. The bathrooms are what we call "deluxe portapotties" because they're all plastic, with a sink, toilet, and shower. The shower is barely big enough for one person to fit in. We were joking that when you're in there, don't drop the soap, because you have to get out of the shower to pick it up again (unfortunately, it's not much of a joke!). However, we're optimistic about our future accommodations. This was something of a last-minute arrangement.

While you at home are enjoying your Easter evenings, we in England are enjoying a good night's sleep. Clare and Lindsey are in my room, and they're both already asleep; it's a sign of how exhausted we all are!

We'll probably be able to post more on Tuesday or Wednesday, but if we can find someplace offering free Internet, we'll do it before then. Keep checking! I'll try to get pictures up in the future.

We'll put up pictures when we're able to access a free wireless connection.

Ten days

Everything is on schedule and looking really well for our departure ten days from now. This blog should be able to have daily updates when we're in England and Ireland.

Welcome

This blog has been established to provide up-to-date information regarding the College of the Ozarks Agriculture Department's Spring 2008 trip to the United Kingdom. We will be using this blog as a way to let all of the family and friends back home know what we're up to as we travel Britain. The dates of the trip are March 22 - April 1, so check back around then for updates.