Another Day, Another Cathedral

---

The youth hostel we’re staying at is pretty excellent—they’ve got all the girls in our group out back in an annex, so it’s like our own private cabin which is hilarious fun. This morning we had writing class where we read two sample essays out loud—mine and Katherine’s—and talked about what worked and what didn’t work. That was a little nerve racking since it was my essay on my experience at Scafell Pike and everyone else lived through it as well. Writing about something when you know everyone else was there to is a bit disconcerting, because you know they’ll remember details you didn’t and also catch you if you try to fudge anything to fit your narrative line, but it was nice to have some feedback on my writing. I really feel like it’s improving a lot on this trip—my journal is starting to feel less didactic and more image and story based which is promising.

Anyway, this morning we went to Salisbury Cathedral. We had the most hilarious and awesome tour guide. I’ve found that in any historical place, it’s really the tour guide that makes the difference. Sure, the house may look nice or old, but it won’t mean anything to you without the stories behind it. I’ve had to get over my fear of asking questions of tour guides because you can learn some really cool things that way if you just pipe up and ask. As I said, our tour guide at Salisbury was brilliant, aside from a few overly political jokes. He told us all sorts of stories about the carvings and the people buried at Salisbury. Salisbury’s an interesting cathedral because it was built in less than 40 years so the whole things is in the same architectural style (early English gothic, if I remember right). It’s very satisfying to stare down the hallways and see symmetric arches going on and on. Again, the stained glass along with many of the statues were destroyed by the reformers in the civil war, but I still love the pieced together windows with fragments of saints and sayings going everywhere.

I spent the rest of the day running some errands—I finally got my postcards from Oxford a week ago mailed off, and I got to update my blog at the library, as you all well know. Then I wandered back to the hostel to work on some writing and go to sleep early, because we’ve got an early start tomorrow.

---