Thats it guys...I want a Stately Home. Day 2

Word on the street is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, a fact that I simply ignored in the States. I cannot explain to you why the appeal is so much stronger when in another country, nevertheless I ate sooo much this morning to get me started for the busy day ahead. Today, we're scheduled to cover The United Kigdoms' natural history, by way of a workshop held at the school. Mr. Rea (pronounced Ree...opposed to Read Road...a common mistake I made throughout the day) is the most recently hired geography teacher here at A       CS, and he elected to host the workshop. Let me tell you guys something...I have never met a teacher so captivating and motivating as this guy. Hes what....26? Maybe it was the accent or the relaxed academic atmosphere that factored into the surprising length of my attention span...either way, I found the natural history of the UK to be fascinating. We began the workshop by first illustrating what came to mind when we thought of home, then Britain in general. There were no rules, this was completely up to interpretation. An excercise such as this is meant to help break stereotypes and encourage folks to broaden their horizons and adapt a new perspective. We were then given a map and watched a humorous youtube clip that clarified and corrected assumptions people make about England, or rather The United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland.  After filling in our maps and learning about the various distictions of The British Isles, we were then asked to make a mind map in which we compile previous knowledge pertaining to the UK that we had previously attained through media, literature, music etc. We were then invited to connect this knowledge to possible naturalistic foundations that we had just covered. Its truly amazing to see how didactic the Harry Potter series is. After those connections, we were each challenged to target one naturalistic aspect that is the "typical representation" of the UK. My group decided on Ivy, because its typically found on ruins, and quaint cottages that are commonly seen in the UK. Next on the agenda was a gallery walk, during which paintings of ladscapes were taped to the walls around the room. Our task was to identify a singular painting that spoke to us ad develop a peice of descriptive writing inspired by said painting. I chose Tratt's painting entitled "Wildflowers in Cuckmere Haven". This past school year, I was mistakenly placed in an Art 1 class and was forced to listen to a bunch of pretentious analyses on paintings, and I was determined to replicate such an analysis. I should have considered the possibility of being asked to present my work to the class....which I had to...and read with a mock pretentious attitude to the class having first explained my Art 1 story. Finally, we were given three historical figures to tie back to nature; Charles Darwin, JRR Tolkein, and Robin Hood. My group agreed that Darwin would be the easiest to tie back to nature alas we were assigned to Tolkein. However, Tolkein was a vivacious enviromentalist and even portrays industrialization as evil in his works and emphasizes the peace, and importance of the preservation of nature throughout his writings. Hmm...ya learn something new everyday. We actually left the ACS campus today to travel to the Petsworth Park to walk along the British countryside and reinforce the importance of naturalistic history. Good lord, this marvelous expanse of greenery was absolutely breath taking!!!! Spencer, Brendon, and I stuck together as the group split up and resolved to find the Stately Home that was "just over the hill". It was not over the hill...or the next hill...why were those things called "hills"? These were MOUNTAINS I TELL YOU! Honestly...we kindve got side tracked and stalked several herds of deer that were chillaxin on the side of the "hill". Eventually we found the Stately Home and deemed it necessary to make the trek over there. We quite literally got to the front of this incredible mansion that could have very well passed for a palace...when Spencer got a call from our teacher, Mr. Rea who told us that we had missed our curfew. Darn deer! Darn Stately Home! We had no choice but to book it over three hills, running like maniacs the whole way. Ahh well it was an experience and a work out. Tomorrow, its the London Square Mile! I apologize for any bizzare grammatical errors...Im too tired to care.