Yo no escribo muchas para 4 de Septiembre. Yo moy cansado. Yo practico espanol un poco. Yo preocupado yo no hablo espanol en Espana. Necesito aprendo espanol hablar espanol. Yo preocupado yo no hablo frances en France. Yo no hablo frances. No aprendo frances porque no estudio la idioma.
This day we didn't spend much time out of the car. We headed away from Edinburgh on our way out of Scotland. I thought it was funny how we only had two rainy days in Scotland and those were the two days we were in Edinburgh. Iain got rained on a lot; I think I forgot to mention that because of his height I kept poking him in the eye with my umbrella. I joked every time that I was either making sure he was awake or I was making it so that he'd understand how Ahmee and I feel (I'm nearsighted and Ahmee can't see out of one eye).
While we were staying at the Travel Lodge my teachers finally contacted me and let me know what my assignments were. I was also able to download more articles for current events, and my other assignments. So guess what I did part of the time in the car! That's right, I did schoolwork. I must say that I did spend my last few minutes in Scotland looking out the window though. The view was gorgeous especially with the sunlight shining everywhere! Before we passed through the border (marked only by a sign on a rock I might add) we stopped and listened one last time to a bagpiper and to read one last sign. That sign spoke about how in that area loads of raids had taken place along with many clashes of people.
On the road again and this time in England! After we ate lunch (I discovered George had left a nasty surprise for me) Ahmee wanted me to read out loud a bit about Hadrians Wall, the wall that the Romans placed to keep the unruly Scottish tribes out. I wasn't doing a very good job of reading though I must say. I stumbled on the words. Have to say that it's difficult to get the correct pronunciation for some of the towns and forts. We stopped at one Roman fort that was constructed along the wall. Apparently the Romans placed outposts every half-mile to a mile to watch for the Scots. They also placed entire forts in certain places. These forts were very advanced I'd say for their time. Some of the rooms had heating, and this particular fort had a latrine. Instead of the usual fireplace and paved flooring, or dirt flooring, the Romans made a large pocket of air where they put a pocket of air so that the heat from several fires would ventilate throughout the room. This pocket of air was created by places stone pillars between the dirt and the stone floor. I'm not sure if the round stone structure we saw down the hill from the fort was an old well or not. It wouldn't make sense to put a well there because all of the biological waste would be washing down the hill and would contaminate the water. I'm not sure about that. Something I am sure about was their brilliance for building. Instead of laying their stones all going the same direction the Romans placed their stones so that they lay horizontally and then vertically on top of each other. This I believe made the wall more stable than those walls that have stones that are lain the same direction on top of each other.
As we drove along a bit of Hadrian’s Wall I began to wonder why the wall never got taken down to use as more of the stone fences that the farmers use to divide their land, and occasionally separate their sheep. I then thought that for a long time there probably weren't too many people living in this area, the area would get raided and ravaged by spur-of-the-moment warfare. When people did start settling down they probably needed the wall as protection, so they left it alone. Then whenever they no longer needed it so much for protection they started getting too busy with other warfare to deal with it. Then during times of peace some farmers probably did use the stones for their own use. Parts of Hadrian’s Wall are completely invisible, possibly all gone. Other parts look like a giant mole has dug through the earth in a very straight line. Then in a few parts you can see the ancient stones.
Our visit to the Roman Fort was interesting, only thing that would've made it more fun would've been if George had not been giving me nasty cramps. Normally I don't have cramps that are too bad but these made me stop and sit down and wait, hugging my knees tight as the pain in my lower stomach goes away ever so slowly. George also made me get very very weak after our walk up to the fort and around it, so I was more than happy to get back in the car and keep moving. Then I could hug my knees and sit on something comfy! We stopped shortly after the fort to get me some George supplies in a grocery store and then we were on our way again. We were determined to get as far south as we could.
I huddled and watched the scenery as Poppy drove like a madman towards the next Travel Lodge. As we headed farther and farther into the city Poppy started getting nervous. Neither Ahmee nor Poppy like the big city much. I remember being asked by Mr. Owens during my eighth grade field trip to NYC whether or not I thought I could live there. I thought about it for a while and then said yes. I've already lived in two cities, Dayton and Louisville. I've lived in tight quarters (dorms) before. I also like the access people have to transportation. It's not difficult to get wherever you need to go, it just requires a bit of planning ahead in some cases. I like the many people, simply because it's a large variety to people-watch (fun to do in a cafe), and I like the architecture. Both he and Ahmee started calming down though whenever we started heading back out of the city. This time, we had little to no difficulty finding our hotel. Quite a switch for us since it normally takes almost an hour to find our hotel (whenever we reserve it). It's always the things you're looking for that take the longest to find. Whenever you aren't looking for anything in particular it seems that too many things cry out for you to get into. This is true for hotels, for shopping, and I suspect for guys (wouldn't want to be conditional though).
I love staying in Travel Lodge or Premier Inns, then you don't have to go searching for a wifi connection because the hotel has it.
As is custom whenever I've got internet, I got on, sent homework, emailed people, downloaded homework, posted blogs, and emailed people.
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