Friday

Today I went to Liverpool.  We spent most of our time doing tourist-y things like shopping and touring the Beatles museum.  However, while I was there, I noticed some things about the natives of Liverpool.  Firstly, their appearance is quite different from the people back home.  A lot of them dress "scene" or "goth."  And they are very adventurous with their clothing.  Although some people look put together, other people look very random.  The way people dress back home is also less revealing then what people where here.  Of course, I can only speak for the midwest.  When I compare the people here to the people in the midwest, I know that the midwest is not representative of our nation as a whole, but is what I know.

Like big cities in the United States, Liverpool is a very consumerist city.  It's not hard for your money to be spent quickly when you're there.  A waitress in Ormskirk had told us that a lot of the girls in Liverpool are in a lot of debt because of how much money they're spending on clothes.  

Saturday

Today I went to Manchester.  Manchester was a great city and there was so much to see and do.  It was nice to go somewhere and not shop!  It was a bit overwhelming too though just because of how big and sprawling the city is.  Fortunately, public transportation, was readily available throughout all of Manchester.  First of our list of things we had to see was the Old Trafford Stadium.  It's interesting to me that football (soccer) is such a big sport everywhere in the world except America.  (We had to create our own kind of "American Football" instead.  Not that I'm complaining, I love American football!)  The enthusiasm that people have for football is so interesting to see.  We also went to the art gallery in the center of the city.  The gallery had both modern and classic art and was a lot more quiet then the rest of the city.  While I was there, I saw a picture of Picadilly Gardens that showed this beautiful scene of a fountain and trees and flowers and it was just gorgeous.  However, when we went to Picadilly Gardens later that day, much to my disappointment, it had been all urbanized and now consisted of shops and the like.  The picturesque garden was gone, but I'm glad that I saw the painting and I will remember it the way it once was.  Before we left Manchester, we also went and saw the Cathedral.  Although we were unable to go inside, it was great to see the cathedral and a more historic part of town.  

Sunday

Today we went to what was probably my favorite part of the entire trip- Lake District.  It was so beautiful.  Of all the places in England, this is where I could picture myself living.  I loved the splendor of the hills, the beautiful houses, the clear blue lake.  I could have spent days there just soaking up the view.  Lake district to me was classic England- it has all this great history and all the the beauty has remained untouched.  I like the little shops and the friendly people.  They have this small-town kind of hospitality.  And I'm finding myself struggling for words to describe how much I enjoyed the beauty of the place.  To say that it left me speechless is not an exaggeration.  Everything was so gorgeous and my camera couldn't capture what I was seeing with my eyes.  This is definitely somewhere I would want to go back!