I have had a very interesting weekend over here! Nevertheless,let's start from the very beginning.
There is an organisation called HOST UK in the UK who organises family visits for international students,meaning that they can have a chnace to såpend a weekend with an English family as their guest! I applied for the programme and got accepted. I had a chance to visit lovely elderly lady in Shropsihe which is close to the Welsh border. The little town iss called Church Stretton and there are appox. 4000 inhabitants there. It is marvellous, real English town with absolutely great landscape with green hills and countryside! It is difficult to describe it but I just had a marvellous weekend there wit another student from Taiwan.
The lady with whom we stayed was a great host and she made fantastic English dishes for us to taste! I cannot understand why the English kitchen is usually siad to be the most awful in the world..at least my experience with it is very positive! For a Finnish person the real English food sems quite like home.made Finnish food as well. Potatoes and some warm vegetables with fish or meat (in my case a vegetarian version;)).
On Friday evening when I arrived at Church Stretton we had anice dinner with potatoes and salmon. The dessert was some typical pudding with peeches, custard and whipped cream. Very delicious!;)
Saturday was the highlight of the visit: we went for a lovely walk on the hills among the sheep!! I have wanted to do this kind of thing ever since I came to England in january and now I finally had a chance to do some hill alking again. I think the British Isles are just perfect location walk walking and hiking! There are so many lovely paths among the hills, higher mountains or simply in the Lake district or in the countryside. They vary a lot and there are pathways for few hour-walks but also for hiking for several days. I think I will be coming back for some outdoor activities here some day in the future and I will most deffinitely rember the little Shropshire town which seems like an ideal base for a hiking holiday as the pathways start almost from the town centre and there is no need to drive your own car anywhere to able to reach the hiking areas.
We had a marvellous, sunny weather and the view was just amazing! It was so peacefull and relaxing that it is impossible to describe. Everyone has to experience the feeling by themselves to know what I mean by this..;) Sometime sit is difficult to remember that this kind of peacefull havens still exist and are quite untouched. My host told me that this is one of the most "English" areas still to be found in the Uk as the mass tourism hasn't reached it. there are some hikers and activity tourists during the summer months but still Church Stretton is a sleepy little town without hustle and bustle of tourist groups with their cameras.
On Saturday night we were supposed to go and see some local culture in the community centre. Thereb were a group of Welshmen to act a play with some Welsh poetry but unfortunately the tickets were sold out and instead of this, we found ourselves in a local pub with glasses of wine. It was a lovely end for a nice day anyway and I can just say that I slept very well indeed on Saturday night after few hours out in the fresh air in the hills!;)
Sunday morning was very sunny and nice so me and teh Taiwanese girl went for another shorter walk together while our host visited her church. It was another great experience with beautiful landscapes and refreshing morning wind! We took lots of pictures of the sheep who actually came very close to us and didn't seem to be scare dof us at all. All thy did,was eating the grass.:) I have never seen the sheep doing anything else actually but either eating the grass very fondly or sleeping. They are strange but lovely cuddly creatures the sheep.
After our morning walk we had (another) delicious full English breakfast before we started our journeys back home. I love the Englisg veggie sausages..:) Yummy!

Our host was amazing woman indeed. She is nearly 80 years old but she put her walking boots on and off we went up the hills as if nothing! She also travels all around the world visiting her children who live abroad. She has done great journeys in Mexico, Nepal and Indonesia. She has a large family, being a mother of 8 herself! Today she has 18 grandchildren and still 4 sisters and 2 brothers alive herself! This is difficult to understand for a person like me who only has one brother and two cousins! I must say I admire that woan a lot. She has done a lot in her life from being a nurse in Africa when she was young to be an international well-travelled grandmother who knows many different cultures. I wish I could tell as many great stories at her age myself!

This is the story of a family visit and Church Stretton. i will add a new album of pictures from this great journey asap.