Cornwall

First let me apologize for the delay in the writing of this blog - I haven't forgot about you and want to keep you all updated! I've just been occupied with a couple of research paper outlines:

Sustainable Development: How Environmental Conditions, Pollution, and Climate Change Affect Developing Countries

Universal Expressions and Non-verbal Communication in Cultural Anthropology

Last weekend the school took a large group of students, 70 or so, to the Seventh-day Adventist camp in county of England called "Cornwall" that encompasses the whole south-west peninsula of Great Britain. The SDA camp at Cornwall is the equivalent of our summer camps in the states in that they have their kids and family camps there and in the winter they have various retreats by groups throughout the conference.

Lukas (Germany) and Clément (France) at the rest stop (anyone else think Lukas looks like Seth Meyers from SNL Weekend Update?)

[From Left: Sopia (Korea), Mara (Latvia), and Sarah (Germany) at the start of our bus ride over]

It was roughly a six hour drive in a caravan of about seven large, 14-person, white vans. I was told we would be camping, which to me meant tents. However, when I arrived at the camp the visions I had of thickly-wooded forests, meals over a fire, and sleeping on the ground was quite different than what I now saw. The grounds of the camp are essentially a rectangular grassy 50x100 yd plot of land with 15 or so trailer homes on it. There is a small meeting house/cafeteria and a basketball court and that's it as far as multi-purpose recreational facilities goes. We stayed in a "caravan" (that's what they call the trailer homes) that was about 10x25 ft and had three small rooms with 5-foot beds in them. The great thing about the camp is that you can see the ocean from the camp. It is about half a mile, or a 10 minute walk down to the beach.

The camp at Cornwall (yes, this strip of green grass and trailer homes is it)

Some ruins near the camp-site

Sitting, watching the sunset at the beach near the camp-site

Our first trip down to the beach near Cornwall

The walk down to the beach

The sunset at the beach near the camp-site

After getting over the initial shock of the English-style SDA camps, we went on a walk down to the beach and around to some of the ruins in the area - old mining buildings from the early 1900's. Saturday afternoon we got in the vans once again to spend a few hours on a nearby beach. This beach was again: not what I was expecting. It was largely covered in smooth, fine, wet sand; both the water and the beach were very clean and the water was actually blue. A group of us all got into our swim-suits and ventured out into the water. We had a great time bobbing up and down with the 5-6 foot waves. The water was icy-cold but somehow it didn't matter. After I got out, my fingers were literally numb for about two hours.

Doing a fun hand-painting activity at church

The beach we went to Saturday

Friends building a sandcastle on the beach

A 3-in-1 soap dispenser, washer, and dryer in public restrooms at the beach

Sunday, we left the camp by 10 and drove a little over an hour to Tintagel. Tintagel is the supposed birthplace of King Arthur and the town milks this legend for all it's worth! Bookstores, gift shops, and restaurants don signs referencing the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table left and right. We walked down towards the castle, watched a brief historical video on the site, and payed to go up to see the ruins of the castle. On the top of the small plateau where the castle is supposed to have sat, there are barely minor remnants indicating a fortress ever stood there. We had lunch on the edge of the cliffs on one side, feeding the flock of sea birds that were hovering around us hoping for some lunch themselves. Not long after we had fed the appetite we worked up from sitting in the car that morning, we had to climb the steep steps down and back up to the village of Tintagel.

Kasyn feeling inspired by the castle

The few remains of the castle

The coast-line at Tintagel - yes, the colors are THAT vivid

Seven hours in a van later, we finally got back to Newbold for some relaxation!

(Here's a video of Mark talking about swimming at the beach Saturday)

A video of the students at the end of our trip to Cornwall, to give you an idea of the size of the camp and the number of students that went. The man speaking is named Henrik and is head of student life at the campus.

Coming soon: The Musicals (Wicked and Les Misérables), More Observations, and a Video Campus Tour