One of the courses I'm taking here at the University of Manchester is taught by my study abroad advisor, Professor Randy Fuller on Charles Darwin and the Victorian Age of Discovery. This weekend, the class went on a trip to look at some of the things we've read about for the course such a the Museum in Scarborough, the museum William Smith had designed. After looking through the museum, we had a chilly (but beautiful) lunch along the beach where I took numerous pictures of the castle in the distance and the surfers waiting for the next thrilling wave they'd conquer.
Then we drove off to Whitby and situated ourselves in quite possibly the nicest hostel I have ever been to. It sure beats the sleazy hostel some of us stayed in a few weeks ago while vacationing in Nice, France! The hostel was just outside the ruins of Whitby Abbey as well as this eerie and peculiar looking ancient cemetery. After a surprisingly great dinner at the hostel, half of the study group went on a ghost walk in town that I was too chicken to join in on. It appears afterwards though that it was the funniest ghost walk they've ever experienced, with the ghost continuing to ply them with jokes. We ended the night together playing round after round of a card game called Spoons, using rings instead of spoons though.
Sunday was exciting! Professor Fuller took us down to the beach area and we spent a good two hours or so looking for fossils! Within the first 10 minutes or so, I found a really great fossil of an ammonite. By the end of the two hours, I managed to find another ammonite fossil, though less impressive, a few fossilized shells, and some really beautiful rocks. I believe Professor Fuller told us that the fossils in Whitby should be from the Jurassic Era, about 160 MYA! Neat, huh?
Anyway, after the really awesome fossil scouring at the beach, we had "world famous" fish and chips at the Quayside and then looked at better fossil collections at the Whitby Museum. We then also got to have a short discussion session with Roger Osborne, author of one of the books we've read for the course. He was quite entertaining. All in all, I enjoyed the Whitby trip immensely and look forward to the next class trip to London and Darwin's home!
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