Day One & Two ~ Friday, April 26 & Saturday, April 27

Well, this is my first Field Journal entry for Europe! I’m going to combine yesterday and today into one entry, since we’re really just adjusting to Europe.
Right now we’re on the train making our way over to Penrith, where I guess we’ll be staying the night, or at least that’s the closest train stop. Hollis just handed out the prayer flags for us to start thinking about.
Looking out the window, I can see the rolling green farms of England. It’s interesting that I’ve seen a lot of this on TV, especially Sherlock Holmes, trains going by vast green landscapes in England, and here I am living it! The sky is overcast – not surprising – but it was sunny earlier.
Anyway, coming in yesterday could not have gone smoother. We landed 20 minutes early, a far cry from my 2 hours late flight also on United the day before, sailed through customs and our bags were ready for us as we approached baggage claim.
Then the trains and walking started. I forget how long, but it wasn’t too bad before we made it to the Youth Hostel. By three we were waiting for Charlotte, who made it just a couple minutes later. At this point, with the trains and walking, it took us about an hour to make it to Parliament/Buckingham Palace.
It was here that we all split up. Charlotte, Orson, Sean M. and myself all tagged along with Hollis to the history museum. We faced a big T-Rex disappointment there. That’s all I’m saying, because if Hollis really reads this thing through, he won’t want to read details.
After that, Hollis went to go shopping, and so the four of us went up to Camden (a place with lots of shops and restaurants) and wandered for a while. We found a nice Thai restaurant (sit down!) and had dinner. After dinner, we looked in a couple shops, but mainly went back to the Hostel to shower and get ready for evening meeting and program that mostly consisted of info for the next month.
And that’s pretty much it.

-Joseph Bruner

Now continuing with day two, once we got off the train (going through the rolling hills), there was a castle nearby that we hung out at. We had lunch there (OP sandwiches) and after eating and climbing (on the castle ruins) we caught a couple taxis over to the Edenhall Hotel.
We set our stuff down, and went out for a walk. The sun was out again at this point. The walk, I believe, was call the “Lady’s Walk” – a simple hike, probably a couple miles at most. We went by a chapel that we also got to go inside of. The graveyard around it was very old – some tombstones dating back to the 1600s!
Then we moved on and made our way down to and alongside a river. The scenery was beautiful, very green and spacious – so lucky that the sun has been out the past two days. And the clouds! The clouds that have been here are majestic and grand, and are much lower which helps them appear even more impressive.
As we made our way back, we passed by a field where people were playing soccer. Excuse me, football. We sat and watched for a while. They instantly identified us as Americans! Finally we head back to the hotel. I took a nap. It was beautiful. After that, I went down to the bar and joined most of the others. Orson was also taking a nap as it turned out. He took a while to come down. Right before dinner, I ordered my first legal (and first ever) beer! It was disgusting.
I didn’t realize that beer was so biter. Thank God I only ordered a half-pint. After three sips, I finally gave it away. I hated it. It’ll probably be my last beer for a long time. After dinner came dessert. I thought I was getting a waffle. I ended up getting a waffle with brown sugar. If heaven has a flavor, it’s got to be brown sugar waffles with maple syrup.
After dinner/dessert we had evening program, where we learned our jobs for tomorrow, and then did hopes and fears in a hat. I really loved the hope to have 14 new best friends.
And now we’re all hanging out in the bar. Others are sipping beers, playing pool. And that’s it for today. One more travel day tomorrow before we start prepping for the Alps.

-Joseph Bruner