The Joys of the British Life!!!

The sights and experiences I have had so far have been way beyond breathtaking! As we are usually in the central Ohio area at Otterbein the sights and land seem to be pretty flat and boring. This opens up our eyes to a different part of the world seeing lots of unique architecture, hills, beautiful countryside, and totally a complete different landscape than Ohio. Not only have we seen the different landscapes over the past 5 days traveling the British countryside we have experienced different food, culture, and amazing sites. We have experienced many differences and similarities of England vs America and each aspect has its positives and negatives. Each site we have visited so far has been exciting and unique in its own way. I now want to touch on a few aspects of the trip that have interested me.

The Florence Nightingale childhood church and grave site in Wellow and her family manor of Embley sparked my interest the most. This is partially because without Florence, nursing, would not be the same today. We saw the tree on her manor that she was sitting under when God spoke to her about pursuing nursing. She changed nursing by focusing on the sanitation aspect to help decrease the spread of diseases. I did not expect her to be buried by such a small church and graveyard, and way off the beaten path because she made such an impact on nursing and was even offered to be buried in Westminster Abbey. However, the church and graveyard was absolutely beautiful! Embley is now Hampshire Collegiate School. It’s neat that they took such a beautiful manor and its ground and made such great use out of it. My second favorite place was the Roman Baths.

We all have learned about the Romans growing up because they contributed in so many ways and are a big part of history. Getting to actually see some of the work the Romans did themselves is very interesting. For dating way back their design and building skills were incredible. In one of the baths there are hot water springs that still have hot water flowing from the center of the earth. When we were walking through the many different baths I looked at Megan and go “Are these hot springs real or do you think it’s all fake?” It’s just incredible to think that they not only found this hot water springs, but there is still tons of water rising from them still today. The architecture, building, and design that went into these baths are truly amazing and it was definitely a site to see.

Overall I have been very pleased with the trip so far and nothing has fallen short of my expectations. Being in a different country always brings exciting and unique experiences that you might never have imaged being a part of!!! London we have arrived!!

-Hailey Jones