Day 21-July 22

This morning came way too early! We met at the tube station at 5:30 and took a train to Kidderminster where the Brintons carpet factory is located. It took a little over an hour on the train and then they picked us up on busses to go the rest of the way. That felt like at least another hour but I have no idea how long it really was. Brintons carpet has been around since 1783 and is one of the leading carpet companies for high-end carpets in the world. They are very competitive and produce top of the line products. They do a lot of stuff for casinos and commercial areas but they have a small residential line as well. They even did some carpets for the Whitehouse! They do both custom-made and pre-made designs and I thought they were all pretty cool. We split up into four groups and went through four rotations that lasted an hour each. They took us through their archives, gave us a background presentation, showed us their products (including some pretty cool stuff that hasn’t been released), and took us on a tour through the factory. It was way cool to see how they were made. It was not at all what I imagined. I lucked out and was in a really small group and so we got to see everything really well and that was pretty awesome. They fed us lunch halfway through the day, and I had no idea what was in any of the sandwiches but I ate a gazillion anyways. Haha. I didn’t feel very good afterwards, but we ate some digestives afterwards and that was much better. I swear I eat like ten desserts a day here! There’s just so many delicious goodies to try. It’s a good thing we walk around a lot! The whole tour thing took most of the day but it was really interesting. Everyone there was really passionate about the company and their work and they were super friendly and you could tell they were enjoying it. Also, they really do put a lot into the end result of their products and are very careful to make sure that it was only the best. You could tell that they had a very high integrity. So, although their carpets are pretty expensive, you can pretty much be guaranteed that you’re getting a great product that will last a long time. I felt really bad because by the end of the presentations we were all so tired and I was trying SO hard to stay awake but sometimes my eyes would just shut without me even realizing it. I must have looked way more tired than everyone else because everyone who was presenting to us always told me I looked exhausted and they didn’t say anything about everyone else. I felt way bad, but I really was trying my hardest! We couldn’t take any pictures at Brintons so I don’t really have any pictures from today since that’s all that we did. They said we’d get arrested if we took pictures in there…and they were serious…so yeah, not a good idea. On the way home we stopped at a Tesco and picked up some bread and goodies and then we came home and made Hawaiian haystacks for dinner. It takes sooo long to cook in our kitchen, but hey it saves us money. It kinda turned out gross. Everything here is so bland compared to the States….the peanut butter, the soup, baked beans…they just don’t have any flavor. What can ya do though right? At least it’s not super gross. It’s just not very good. They have delicious snack foods though!