The majority of our time this week has been spent on a bus, traveling from one end of England to the other. We have visited several churches and castles that are in some way significant to the period of English history between the Roman Empire and the Norman invasion in 1066. So far, my favorite cathedral has been the one at Durham, which required nothing more than a 5 minute walk, as opposed to the churches at Lindisfarne or Edlingham, which took about 2 hours to drive to. Still, we have seen some very cool things, like the tomb of St. Cuthbert (that may seem not so much "cool" as "morbid," but if you go look up the story of Cuthbert and what happened to him after he died, you'll understand!). I thought it was interesting that Lindisfarne, which is also called Holy Island, is only an island sometimes. You can only drive on the causeway from the main land onto the island at low tide because, when the water rises, it's completely cut off.

Other than our field trips, I haven't done much this week. Well, I've been so tired when we get back! Tired, and hungry. Our lunches have been kind of strange... The people who work in the cafeteria at Hatfield College pack sack lunches for us with sandwiches and cookies. Sounds normal enough, right? Wrong. The sandwiches have nothing on them but some shredded cheese and butter. Actually, that's on a good day. Today my sandwich was nothing but a single slice of cheese. And the cookies are made of oats... So, needless to say, it will be nice to move onto Oxford on Sunday. I've heard that Lincoln College, where we will be living, has very good food. Also, no more 7 hour field trips. Granted, we will be sitting in classrooms 4 mornings a week, but the rest of our time is our own. On the weekends, we get to travel independently, which I am super excited about. London! Dublin! Wales! Hooray!!!!

Tomorrow, we are off to York for our last field trip. Saturday is a free day, so I will be heading back to Edinburgh for the John Lennox-Christopher Hitchens debate at the Edinburgh International Festival. More on that later!