Island Rubies

Farewell London

2008-12-31T16:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's been a while. But here's the last installment of my epic adventures! I hope that you've had some fun. I actually started this last blog entry on a little plane on the way to Aarhus, Denmark, and now after a good amount of procrastinating I'm actually going to finish it. So this is a quick overview of my last two weeks abroad. Enjoy!

Finals, Studying and Papers: While you might think that we would spend the last couple of weeks in London just partying, this is not true. In fact, this was probably the time that we had the most homework due. It was kind of stressful. We had papers due for every class (two for humanities) and then only one day off to study for all of our finals. But don't worry, we survived. The last couple of days of class were pretty fun though, despite the homework. Dr. Paul even made us crumpets in our mystery class, and we crashed Professor Wimmer's flat to enjoy our last session of British Studies on his couch with fresh cookies. Actually studying for finals was just crazy though. I wouldn't recommend taking finals for fun. Just putting that out there.

Shopping: We did manage to make time to enjoy ourselves. There was no way you could keep us inside the center all day with London calling. I think it was on Tuesday that I finally went over to Harrods. There are just some things that we never ended up doing until the very end. I have to admit that I was surprised by how massive that place was. And did I mention that it's expensive? Because it is. I felt very out of place walking past the Valentino dresses in my worn out jeans. I decided that it was probably a good decision to not touch anything. Other days when I could squeeze it in I took breaks to go back to some of our old haunts for more last minute shopping and enjoyment, like Bond Street, Regent Street, and Regent Street. Me and Annie even managed to go back to Covent Garden several times. I think I hit up the candy store there like three times.

War Horse: On approximately Wednesday I went to see a production of War Horse at the National Theater. We got the standing tickets so we once again got to enjoy an amazing performance for an incredibly low price. It was really cool because they used a lot of puppets that I can't even describe. We also had a fun night because on the way we spontaneously went to the Australia premier in Leicester Square, where we got to see Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and (insert drum roll please) Elton John. When the car pulled up and someone said that it was Elton John who had stepped out I didn't believe them, because why in the world would he be there? But then again I guess there's no reason for him to not be there. Whatever floats his boat. So all that was a fun detour.

The British Museum: Our last Sunday me and Lindsay went back to the British Museum for one last time, where we took tons and tons of fun pictures with mummies and such. Good times.

Wanderings: In case you haven't already picked up on this, I like to wander a lot. So I did. Good things come from wandering, and in London you never know quite what you're going to see, like one day during the week when we wandered past a massive gathering on drunken Santa's in Trafalgar Square. They even had a Santa flag. On our last day (Monday) a few of us just went wherever our whims led us, revisiting Covent Garden (of course), the Southbank, Big Ben, The Strand, Trafalgar Square, and pretty much everywhere else that tickled out fancy. We really didn't want to leave. For our last night I went and saw Zorro the musical again since it's just a giant fiesta and we wanted to have a fun last night. Plus, I'm still kind of obsessed with Zorro. But it's okay because Sabrina is too. We bought t-shirts and soundtracks together and we're going to have parties next semester to liven up our days in Provo.

Packing: This was just ridiculous. It looked like an explosion had gone off in our room, with bags and clothes scattered everywhere. Just try to imagine 12 girls in one cramped room trying to pack everything they you've used and bought in the past four months. Trust me, you wouldn't want to be there. Luckily I had Annie and she pretty much did it all for me. She has skills.

Endings: To wrap things up we had a final brunch on Monday, which was really sad. Pretty much anything that had to do with leaving was sad, like saying goodbye to everyone at church. We got to go to the single adults Christmas party on the Friday of finals which was a lot of fun. They had the place decorated all fancy and there was a full Christmas dinner. So that was a lot of fun. Then on Monday we had the brunch at the center where we got to enjoy a "best of breakfast at the center" including waffles, Amish oatmeal, omelets, and much more. After stuffing ourselves we all got to go upstairs to the classroom for the last time for closing remarks and a slide show of pictures from the semester. It was very bittersweet.

Sweden! I was sad that the program ended, but I was excited because that meant I got to see Sara and Louise. My first stop was to see Sara in Stockholm. We had a ton of fun. it was really nice because we got to use her house as her home base, and I got to meet her boyfriend and see her mom again. They're great. I had delicious food and just got to relax after the craziness of the semester. Sara also gave me a great tour of Stockholm, taking me to the old town and shopping and stuff. I really liked it there, and it was really fun because it was so close to Christmas so there were all sorts of lights and stuff up and we got to go to a Christmas fair. We also went ice skating outside in the city, which was amazing. We just had a lot of fun. Since I'd never driven stick before I even got a lesson from Sara and her boyfriend Bjorn. I can now say that I am perfectly comfortable driving a stick in gears one through three in a parking lot.

Denmark! My next stop was Denmark to see Louise. I went to Aarhus first since that's where she going to school and it was great because I got to fly into a tiny little airport where you just walk off the plane. I like that. We did all sorts of wonderful things, like go to an old village that was all Christmas decorated, eat Danish food, shop, and make Christmas stars. After a day in Aarhus we rode the train to her house in Odense where I got to spend the next couple of days having fun with her family. They were great, and it was especially fun because they let me in on some of their Christmas traditions. For example, I learned that Santa comes every Sunday. We got to go on nice walks through the town too. Basically I loved my life.

This entry really doesn't do the last couple of weeks justice, but it is New Year's Eve and I have plans tonight, but I'm sure that I needed to finish this before it's not 2008 anymore. Seriously, spending time with Sara and Louise was one of the best parts of the entire trip. Ask me about it and I'll be able to do a lot better job of telling you about what happened. This is just the super short version. I flew home from Copenhagen and eventually made it home. As I'm sure most of you know, the weather in Portland was crazy so things at the airport were all messed up. It's actually the most snow on record for Portland. They're calling it "Artic Blast '08". So we were kind of worried about whether or not I would even make it home because they were cancelling flights like crazy and I would have been stuck in DC by myself. When I got to DC I was rushing through customs because my plane was scheduled to leave pretty soon after I got in, but then I found out it was delayed until 8:30. And then 9:47, and then 11:47, and then it was cancelled, and then it was un-cancelled... It was really stressful. They were basically telling people to go home, but since I didn't have the option I stuck around. Apparently if our plane had been cancelled the soonest we would have been able to fly out would have been Christmas day, which I was not ok with. Luckily we ended up commandeering a plane from Aruba and we made it into Portland with only a four hour delay. I know people who had four day delays. It was pretty much the longest day of travel ever though, and by the time I made it home I had been awake for a good 28 hours. But I made it, and my beautiful trip was officially over. But I'll be back again!

The Last Installment of PicturesBye Bye studying in cramped cornersBye Bye London CentreBye Bye Tasty BreakfastsBye Bye ProfessorsBye Bye TubeBye Bye Delicious Covent Garden Candy StoreBye Bye Drunken SantasBye Bye Beautiful London CityscapeBye Bye Taking Tons of Pictures of the Same Thing at Slightly Different AnglesBye Bye Pictures with Cool BackgroundsBye Bye Random Nights Out on the TownIce Skating in Stockholm!Being in Stockholm!Shopping in Stockholm!Old Town in Denmark!Shopping in Denmark!

Christmas Tree with Actual Candles in Denmark!

Thanks so much for reading my blog and I hope that you have a Happy New Year!

Cheers, Nat

I´m Tired

2008-12-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

The post for this last week is going to be a little late. I apologize for any inconvenience it may cause you, but I´m tired and had absolutely no time last week with finals and everything. Right now I´m actually using Sara´s sweet computer in Sweden. But don´t worry, I will catch up! So just hold tight my friends. This next one will be great.

Hamlet Dies, And This Time I Care

2008-12-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

This is going to be one of my last posts since I only have two weeks left, so you should savor every moment of reading this I'm sure. It's really quite tragic, although not quite as tragic as watching David Tennant die in Hamlet last night. But that comes later. Right now I'm mourning the fact that I only have 8 days left of the program. Luckily the program ending isn't the worst thing in the world, because once it's over that means that I get to visit two of my very favorite people-- first the lovely Sara in Sweden, and then the fabulous Louise in Denmark. I pretty much love my life. But, first I have to make it through this week. Between this week and last week I have 5 papers and three finals due. Not cool. But don't worry, I'm a professional procrastinator so I still managed to have a lot of fun. This week's fun activities included:

Kitchen Crew-- I know I talked about it a little bit last time but it was all this week so I'm going to say more. We cleaned dishes. A lot. We also had to wake up early and set up all of the food and such. I am so ridiculously sleep deprived because we had to be downstairs and have everything ready by the time breakfast started at 7:30, and of course my room (who were all also on kitchen crew) and I could never seem to be able to go to sleep before one. We make the actual work fun (there's a lot of singing involved); it's just hard since it takes a couple hours out of our already hectic days. But now we're all done! We enjoyed dinner tonight by rinsing of our plates and then just walking away. Oh yes.

Mama Mia-- This was just a ton of fun on the stage. Getting tickets to this is pretty much impossible, so Anna went early while the rest of us were in mystery class and got us super sweet tickets-- we had our own box. So, we were right above/next to the stage, and the seats were even more comfy than usual. And the tickets were even less expensive. It was just all around good. We danced along with the songs, and then whistled the songs for the rest of the week while they were stuck in our heads.

The Queen Opens Parliament-- I just watched this on TV while working on my British Studies paper. It was pretty fun to watch all of their traditions and whatnot. A couple of the girls headed out early-ish and actually got to see the Queen up close leaving Buckingham palace and waved to her and such. I was a little sad that I couldn't go, but for once I was on a roll with my paper and I figured that it was ok since I had already seen both of the princes in person. Plus, it was fun watching it in the warm kitchen.

The Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum-- This was pretty cool. Actually, it was really cool. The rooms that Churchill and his cabinet operated in and made all of the decisions regarding the war. They moved all operations under ground so they wouldn't get hurt by bombs, but Churchill didn't like to spend too much time down there. It was really interesting to see all of the things that were going on behind of the scenes of the war though, and there was even the huge map they used to track troop movements that still had thousands of little holes in it from where all the pins used to be. It was really interesting to see how they all lived down there and made decisions that were so crucial to world history.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum-- This was pretty sweet, mostly because they had hats and pipes and everything to take pictures with so we could pretend like we were Holmes and Watson. They also had wax sculptures of the villains upstairs, and the whole house was decorated just like 221b Baker Street is supposed to in the books, and there were even some actors and stuff walking around pretending like it was all real history. The gift shop was pretty fun too.
The Messiah-- We went to this cool presentation of Handel's Messiah at the Barbican Center where they performed it with instruments from the baroque time period and had a smaller choir like it would have been then. I have to admit that I didn't realize that it was so long though, or that I was so incredibly tired. The music was all performed amazingly, but I'm not a huge fan of Baroque as it is and I almost passed out a few times. The Hallelujah Chorus and other things that I recognized were fun.

Snog-- So I had my first snog after the concert. It's probably not what you're thinking. Snog is this frozen yogurt place (like Yoasis or that place in California Amber is addicted to) next to the South Kensington tube stop. This tube stop was as far away from the Messiah as it could get (although it's only a couple stops from home) but we wanted it so after traveling forever and getting a little lost (where we ended up strolling past our local Lamborghini dealership, you know, the usual) we made it there. And we ate that frozen yogurt. I got strawberries and blueberries on top and was quite happy with life.

Abbey Road-- There are a bunch of fun little London things that we just hadn't got around to doing yet and this was one of them. I think it's pretty much required to go to Abbey Road and try to recreate the scene on the album. It's actually really funny to watch because the crosswalk they use is a big intersection and there isn't a stop light, so when there are no cars you just run, freeze, and hope someone takes the picture before you get hit. I'm happy to announce that all of us are still in one piece. I don't think I'd ever want to drive on that road because I'm pretty sure there's a constant flow of tourists there. Right next to the crosswalk is the Abbey Road recording studio. The wall out front is completely graffitied, and they have to paint it every couple days so we decided to join in on the fun and became vandalists. It's probably all gone by now, but it was fun while it lasted.

Camden-- from Abbey Road we took a quick trip over to the Camden markets where I got some sweet earrings and a cookie before I had to bail and run back to the centre since I had kitchen duty. It was a fun half of an hour though.
The London Temple-- We actually had Friday off from class and stuff to work on all of our papers and such, but we ended up opting to take a group trip to the London LDS Temple for a session. Even though it's the London temple it actually took a couple of hours to get there (it takes over an hour just to get out of the city) but it was totally worth it, as going to the temple always is. It was a really neat experience since the session was made up all of people from the program too. All of the temple workers there were a lot of fun too, and they had the best stories. One of the members of the temple presidency and his wife just got back from being missionaries in Nigeria and they just had the best stories. It was fun to go to the temple too because now I can say that I've served in the temples at all of the places I've lived-- Portland, Provo and London. It was gorgeous, although it was really funny because it had scaffolding on the outside of it. There's been scaffolding on everything since it's the off season (St. Paul's, Chartwell, Versailles, Chatres, you remember), but the temple was the last place I expected to see it so when we were driving up so I just laughed. Apparently they're just about to put the angel Moroni on top (he's on all of the temples) so I figure it's ok though. The temple has been there for a long time, but this is the first time they've been able to put the angel on top because it's right next to Gatwick airport and they said the gold would be a distraction. So this time it's going to be bronze.
Beetle the Bard-- J.K. Rowling's new collection of short stories came out and I think everyone in the program went out and bought it because it will be 20 times cooler since we bought it here. Plus, it's cute and small and only cost 3 pounds 50. Going to get it at Waterstone's was our designated "fun break" from writing papers. Being us we stayed in the tiny book store for a long time looking at random stuff.

Hamlet-- We left the centre at eight in the morning to stand in line outside in the cold for an hour and a half just to get tickets to this play. That's not something that I had ever expected to do for a Shakespeare play since I've never exactly been a fan. Well, at least I hadn't been a fan until I saw Shakespeare performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. That's a completely different story. I've decided that the RSC should officially be the only ones allowed to ever perform Shakespeare, because when they do it I actually like it. I really liked Love's Labor Lost when we saw it in Stratford, and the RSC has a London season that included Hamlet, so I figured that this was my best chance of ever enjoying the play. There was even the added bonus of having David Tennant, who was in Love's Labor Lost, play Hamlet. And Patrick Stewart, the guy from X-Men played his uncle. This is quality stuff. All of the tickets sold out months ago, but they have 25 tickets that they release day of at student rate so we decided to take advantage of that, even if it meant waking up at an icky hour. We had to get there early in order to fight off the David Tennant fans-- for those of you who don't know, he's the star of Doctor Who, which is majorly huge over here. I've seen chocolate lollipops with his face on it. I've never seen Doctor Who, but I have seen him on stage and he really is that amazing. I really hope that he sticks with the theater even though it would be easier for me to see him on film because he's just so dang good at it. So I was really excited to see him again. We got some of the last 5 pound tickets (only five pounds to see it for a student with a slightly obstructed view! Isn't that amazing? Even converted into American dollars I couldn't get a seat in the back of a BYU production of the same show) and then had a party. It was totally worth waiting in line to see. I can't even describe how good it was. They used the original Shakespeare but performed it in modern dress, which I thought was really cool. I just got completely sucked into the play; it didn't matter that I knew everything that happened since I studied it in AP Lang and heard it a ton. Ya, I can't describe it. It was perfect. I just wish that it wasn't a tragedy... David Tennant was too much fun to watch to have him die. Patrick Stewart was great as the Uncle too, and I almost didn't want to not like him. Oh man it was just great. I wish I could relive it. Moral of the story: only watch Shakespeare if it's performed by the RSC. They do it right.

Tate Modern-- In between buying tickets and going to the play was an entire day, so I went and did stuff. One of the things I had to do for humanities was go to the Tate Modern, which is a sweet modern art museum in an old factory along the Thames. I got to see lots o' modern art, which was fun. I also had to go into the special exhibition of Rothko, which was actually really cool. For those of you who aren't familiar with Rothko, he just painted a bunch of squares. Now, this sounds like it would be easy, but he actually drafted these puppies like none other. They had some of his plans and sketches on display and he would go through a lot of work before painting those squares. When the paintings are all together in this huge room they look really cool too, especially when you look at all the brushstrokes and colors and stuff. It's not like it's my favorite thing in the world, but it's really interesting.

Shopping-- Apparently this weekend is the closest thing Britain has to our black friday, but without the amazing sales. They actually shut down all of the traffic on Regent Street and Oxford Street, two major places to shop, so that people could walk down the middle. I only went for a couple hours. It was crazy but a lot of fun too. When it got dark they had fireworks at Oxford Circus and an acrobat in this giant inflatable dome thing. So that was fun.

Church-- This was my second to last week of church, which is sad because I like my ward here. It was funny in Sunday school today because we're in this tiny room and people kept coming in. We ended up with 19 young single adults and little kid all crammed in on chairs with the teacher, Ayla (I don't actually know how to spell her name), sitting on the desk. The lesson was still great though (I'm really going to have lessons taught to me in that sweet Scottish accent) and we all had a lot of fun. I'm excited because there's a single adult Christmas party on Friday at the stake center. We're so going to be there.

Papers-- As you can tell, we did less this week than other weeks (even though I still managed to write way more than I should). Just fill in all of the gaps with me slaving over papers and you'll get a good idea of how this week went down.

And that's it! Tada! The only other thing I've been doing today is writing. Between writing some friends and missions and this blog I think that my hands are going to fall off or something. But you all love me, right? Right. Now I'm going off to watch Elf in the classroom because it's way more fun than writing papers.

Being Holmes and Watson. We're all ready for some quality detection.My first snogging experience.The famous Abbey Road.I learned that vandalism is actually quite fun.The London Temple, complete with decorative scaffolding.Our last day of kitchen duty.

Waiting in the line for tickets way early in the cold but beautiful morning

After the wonderfullness that was Hamlet

On our way to church! We switch lines at Tottenham every single week. Good times.

Jane Austen Loses Her Little Finger

2008-11-30T08:03:00.000-08:00

Well, we're back in London on our normal schedule again. We're definitely running out of time, but luckily the big push still hasn't hit quite yet so this past week was lots o' fun. Actually I think we're mostly in denial, but the results are still the same. Here's some highlights:

Monday-- This was almost an entire week ago and therefore I don't remember anything. Oh wait, it's coming back to me. It started out with class. Then I decided to be all productive-like and went on a walk along the Thames for one of my classes. It was absolutely beautiful weather so I was documenting the beautiful when tragedy struck and my camera met its untimely death right in front of Big Ben. This was not according to my plan for the day. So that was not cool at all. I had too much to do to mourn too long though, so after freaking out a bit I continued on my walk.

The walk itself was actually perfect, and it probably would have been one of my best days if that other thing had not happened. I still got to enjoy it a little though. Part of the walk was through a cute little park next to Parliament, and there were a ton of benches overlooking the Thames so I settled into one of them and finished my humanities reading for the next class. It really was the perfect spot for reading. I'd show you a picture, but I don't have any.

After that break I continued along the walk where I took another pit stop at the Tate Britain, where I looked at a bunch of paintings for humanities. It's been incredibly cold outside so taking a break inside the warm art gallery was very welcome.

From there I finished the walk, and then trekked over to the Imperial War Museum since it was nearby for a second visit. Last time we just went to the Bond exhibit so I needed to go back and look at everything else for my British Studies class. Plus, it just looked really cool. They had some pretty awesome exhibits, including a series of rooms on all of the British Intelligence stuff like MI5 and MI6 and other sweetness. They also had trench and Blitz experiences that you could go through that were supposed to simulate what it would have been like then. The best part of the museum by far was the more serious stuff. I had actually planned to only be at the museum for about an hour so that I could hit up the National Gallery before going home, but I ended up getting sucked into everything at the museum and ended up being a little late for dinner after spending almost three hours there. The Holocaust isn't exactly something you can speed through, nor would I want to. The Holocaust rooms were set up incredibly well. They had all sorts of information and all that, but they also showed the process of the whole event taking place and how it would have looked in ordinary homes. They also had television monitors set up every so often that showed interview clips with people's first hand experiences of what had happened. Downstairs they had permanent exhibits of all sorts of stuff on the first and second world wars, and even some stuff on the cold war and what had happened since then. It was really interesting to see it all laid out chronologically. But as amazing as all of these other parts were my favorite thing there was the temporary exhibit called In Memoriam, which was a tribute to those who served in World War I, which they call the Great War over here. The reason that I liked it so much was because instead of just laying out the facts of what happened the exhibit was entirely made up of telling the stories of over 90 people who had been a part of it. It was brilliantly set up, with simple glass cases placed around the room and white walls and everything so the focus was really on what was in the cases. The cases contained a few personal artifacts accompanied by there story. Having there personal things there next to the stories somehow made it seem much more real. The most beautifully awful thing in there were the letters. In one of the cases they had put out two letters from an engaged couple-- the last letter from the soldier and a letter written by the girl after he had died and she didn't know. I almost couldn't finish reading them; they were just so beautiful and loving and I couldn't stand knowing what had happened to them. He kept calling her darling in every sentence and talking about what he'd do for her when he got home, and she wrote that she was a little worried since she hadn't heard from him in so long, but that she'd keep writing because she knew the letters would mean so much to him. Reading the letters made waiting for a missionary seem a heck of a lot easier. At least they know that they'll come home. It's safe to say that during the course of my visit I started to think that breaking my camera wasn't the worst thing that could happen to me.

I did eventually pry myself away from the museum, even though I could have spent a lot more time there, and made it back to the center for dinner. After dinner we watched a half hour comedy called Yes Prime Minister for our religion class, and then we headed out to Westfield for shopping just because we could. It just opened a few weeks ago and apparently it's the largest mall in Europe. And it's only two tube stops away. We didn't buy anything but it was a lot of fun to look. It's really nice because everything around here seems to close pretty early, but this mall is open 'till 10 on weekdays. And it's pretty and shiny. I like that. Right now we're all really spoiled with shopping in the area with Oxford Street, High Street Kensington, Queensway, Westfield and Portobello all under ten minutes away... Somehow I don't think I'll be satisfied with Provo or University Mall.

Tuesday-- Tuesday I had class until 1:40 since it was a B-day, and then I headed into the real world outside of the centre to go to the National Gallery since I didn't make it there before. It's really nice that we go there for homework assignments instead of just a free for all because otherwise I would never be able to see so many things and appreciate them. Tuesday my visit was all about the impressionists, so I got to see more stuff by Monet and Van Gogh and loved it yet again. I'm really going to miss going to the art galleries whenever I want. There's something really relaxing about just casually walking through a gallery and admiring the pictures. What can I say, I'm really spoiled right now. It's fun because I always seem to run into people there too. This time it was Kelsy. Good times.

The National Gallery didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would and I wasn't ready to go home to my homework so I decided to go shopping once again just because I could. So I hopped off the tube at marble arch and checked out all the amazing shops in between there and the Bond Street stop. Shopping on Oxford Street is even more fun now than any other time because they have Christmas lights hanging across the street and all of the stores have elaborate displays in their windows with Santa Claus and other fun things. It actually reminds me of the window displays they had every year at Meier & Frank's downtown growing up. Love that. I bought fun stuff and basically just enjoyed my life in London.

After dinner we went to another concert at the Royal Festival Hall (which is on the Thames, by the way. You get to walk over millennium bridge to get there, which I love because it's a super sweet walking bridge). This time it was Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Mahler's First Symphony. I liked this one even more than the last one; I really don't think it could have been performed any better. I especially liked the trumpets, which shouldn't be a surprise to any of you. Oh, I forgot to mention the best part. All of the girls in my room decided to dress up just for fun. I love it when we dress up together because it's like a community effort. I got to borrow Kelsy's skirt again, which I am currently plotting to steal. It shouldn't be hard since her closet is right next to mine and is left unattended most of the day. I'll let you know how the progress goes. But for that night wearing the skirt was especially fun because I got to wear my brand new black and white heels that I bought in Paris. Love them. However, walking over the bridge in heels isn't the most enjoyable thing in life. It takes a lot of concentration. But it was worth it.

Wednesday-- This was the day of our very last excursion outside of London. Sadness. This wasn't exactly my favorite day trip since it revolved around Jane Austen (yes, I don't like Jane Austen and there's nothing you can do about it) but I still managed to have a lot of fun. Our first stop of the day was Chawton, where Jane Austen used to live. We checked out the house and frolicked through the gardens. It was a cute little house, but by this point in the program I can pretty much tell you what you'll find in an author's house before I even step foot into it. It was really funny because we had a couple of hours to check out the town where she lived, but the town also happened to have a park in addition to the historical sites and by the time we were supposed to live everybody was playing on the swings and monkey bars and stuff. From a distance it sounded like the park was full of children, but no it was just full of college students. We're so mature. We did walk over to the house Jane Austen's brother used to live in that was their ancestral home or something and the church that was next to it. I went with them mostly because the town was adorable and I like walking around places. Our second stop of the day was Winchester to see the cathedral where none other than Jane Austen was buried (who would have guessed! Ok, I'll stop being so cynical). Winchester was way cute as well. We spent most of our time at the outdoor market thing they had going on. And we found the North Pole! It may not have been the real one with Santa and all that, but it was no less magical.

Then we walked over to meet the group at the Cathedral where we got to go on tours. This might have actually been one of my favorite cathedrals, mostly because our tour guide was fantastic. He was just this great old guy who told fantastic stories that made me actually interested in the history and architecture of the place. There was even a crypt that we got to go into that usually is covered with water. The best story he told though was about Jane Austen, and it's the source of the title for this blog entry. The tour had actually finished, and I went over to thank him for being so fantastic. When I went over he asked me if we would like to hear another story and I was all over that. So he gathered the little group of us in to share it with us. Apparently in the 1920's or 30's they added central heating to the cathedral, so they had to move Jane Austen's grave 6 inches to make room for the piping. Since it had been so many years since her demise the coffin she was buried in was all rotten, and her little finger was poking through a crack. One of the workers decided that it was his lucky day. He went home all excited and told his wife that they had hit the jackpot-- he had snatched Jane Austen's little finger and they were going to be rich. His wife was appalled. She was horrified that he would show such disrespect for the dead and demanded that he return it to the grave. So he sulked back to work the next day planning to put the finger back where it belonged, but to his surprise he found that one of his coworkers had already finished covering the coffin back up. So he decided to just toss the finger in whatever coffin lay open nearby. So now Jane Austen is missing one of her little fingers.

We got back early from the trip, but I can't remember for the life of me what I did with the rest of my day. Oh wait, I've got it. On a whim I went to Billy Elliot with Michelle. It was pretty much incredible. For those of you who don't know anything about it, it's about a boy who grows up in a mining town and just wants to dance. The best part of the show was hands down the choreography. And the kids in it were all just amazing. They had a ballet class of girls and they were just hilarious. The kid who stole the show was definitely the one who played Billy Elliot though. He deserved to be the star. I can't even describe it to you. He sang, acted, tap danced, did ballet, gymnastics, everything. He even did one of those back flip off the wall things right in front of us. We were in the front row so we got to see everything up close and personal. It was liked we were part of the action. We even got snowed on and lost in the fog machine. But the best part was that we got to see all the facial expressions, and the kid's facial expressions were priceless. He was just so funny. The best was at the end, when he did that "hey babe, we should meet up later" thing with the wink and hand gesture to the girl next to us who had been applauding like none other the entire show. I think you know you've got good seats when you can actually interact with the actors. But the kid was great, in case you can't already tell from what I said. He got a standing ovation at the end, which you hardly ever see in London and the best part was that you could tell he genuinely enjoyed it. And he so deserved it. So that was a lot of fun as well. Have I mentioned that I love life?

Thursday-- Thanksgiving! Sadly I had to ask one of my roommates what happened on Thursday, and then I felt really stupid. So technically we had the day off from class, but we had three things scheduled during the day so we weren't exactly free to roam the city. But we had a ton of fun. The first thing we had planned was actually to go to a Synagogue for religion that's just around the corner from where we live. It's actually even closed than the tube stop. Anyways it was pretty awesome because we had this guy talk to us about the history of the building and told us more about the Jewish religion. It was all really interesting and the synagogue was just gorgeous. The amazing thing about London is that there are gems like this everywhere. There are so many cool places right next to where we live that you don't even realize are there.

We did have a couple spots of free time between scheduled festivities, but they were kind of awkwardly timed so that it was impossible to get anything real done (something from 10-11, 1-2:30, 4:45-6). In between these times we tried to go get tickets to Mama Mia, but apparently this is an impossible task unless you want to pay 40 pounds so we failed. But we accidentally did a lot of walking around London, including walking past the Hyde Park Chapel where we were supposed to stop by for class so we did that. We also managed to squeeze a little chopping on high street in, which is always enjoyable.

One of the highlights of the day was having tea at the Orangery and Kensington Palace. Kensington Palace is actually in Kensington Gardens, which is just across the street from where we live and is totally awesome. It was fun because it was all fancy and an authentic English tea setting. We didn't have real tea of course, but we had something close to it so it was fun. They also gave us a short lesson on tea so that we won't sound like an idiot when talking to English people in the future. We thought that it would just be a light snack, but it turned out to be a full lunch with three courses in addition to the tea. Round one was cucumber sandwiches that were artistically stacked. Round two brought the most delicious scones I've ever had complete with clotted cream and heavenly jam (I couldn't decide which I liked better). Then round three was lemon cake. Meanwhile they had been giving us unlimited refills on our drinks. We may have also been incredibly mature and eaten some of the sugar cubes. This luxury was all thanks to the falling value of the pound. Life is much better now that the dollar is worth more. By the time we left the orangery we were completely full and still had our thanksgiving feast ahead of us.

Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous. I can't imagine cooking it for almost 50 people. We had five whole turkeys-- one for each table. And then there were endless amounts of mashed potatoes and all sorts of wonderfullness. The table was all festively decorated so that was fun too. It had been a little strange out in the city during the day since it seemed like everyone else should be celebrating the holiday too, but once we were in the center eating pumpkin pie everything felt just right.

Once we were done with dinner since we couldn't go to the play we went to the Winter Wonderland that's set up in Hyde Park. Hyde Park is connected to Kensington Gardens and is thus also just across the street, which is wonderful. So we hiked all the way to the farthest corner of Hyde Park to go check it out. It was actually really funny because being the really smart people we didn't check where in the park it was actually set up in. Lucky for us we spotted a giant Ferris wheel way off in the distance through the trees so we decided that it must be over there and we blindly walked through the park to it in the dark. I know, it was an excellent plan. And it totally worked. We totally came out of nowhere on the backside to enter the party though, which I thought was kind of funny. I had this picture of us emerging from the bushes with leaves in our hair and scaring little kids holding candied apples. Luckily we didn't have to climb through any bushes though so that problem was averted. The festival was really cute. They had all sorts of rides and stuff set up (including a haunted Christmas house complete with Scrooge. Oh yes.) and little chalet's with stuff for sale. So we wandered through there and enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere.

And that was Thanksgiving. Yay!

Friday-- This was the day that I gave in and bought the exact same camera I had just broken in the English version because I missed taking pictures. I was way lucky because I just happened to decide to but another one during the two days they were having major sales so I got it for 40 pounds less than I would have if it had been last week. Yay for sales.

Then as far I can remember I just killed time at the center doing homework and such until 1ish at which point I left with other girls to go to an Old Operating Theatre and Museum for British Studies. We made a pit stop in Borrough Market though since it was right next to where we were supposed to go. It was exciting because I had the privilege of introducing Sam to the magic of the market there. And I bought handmade truffles, which is always a good thing.

After eating some sugar we made our way over to the operating theatre. I'm sure that all of you are wondering what this theatre is, so I'll tell you. It doesn't have anything to do with plays or acting or any of that. It's actually this old surgical theatre that they discovered in the attic of a church from the Victorian Era that had been abandoned and left in pristine condition. It was slighlty terrifying. They had all sorts of medical equipment that was used at the time. Let's just say that after looking at all of it I would never have wanted to go to the doctor ever. The theater part of it was where they would do the actual surgeries while students and other doctors would watch what was happening. Having the surgery done was not exactly an enjoyable experience though because there was no pain medication at the time. They person doing the guide had Anna get up on the operating table to demonstrate the techiniques they used with the real knives. Apparently at the time a skilled surgeon would take off a limb in 30 seconds. The desciptions were kind of brutal and a bit more than I felt a need to know. Some of the other people got a little queasy. Once the tour of the inside was over we moved outside for our "cholera walk" where we got to learn more of the ugly side of London and medicine, especially as it pertained to Soutwark. We even get to hear all sorts of exciting stories about body snatchers and grave diggers. I've decided that if it was the Victorian Era London would ba an awful place to be, at least on the south side of the Thames. So I'm glad to be here now instead.

After the class and the walk I think I was lame and just went home to write one of the many papers we have coming up. We did take a marvellous break to go back to Mio Gelato and have a tasty break though.

Saturday-- This was my first day of kitchen crew, so I had to get up to set up breakfast with the other girls in my room. All of us take turns cleaning the dishes and putting the food out and such. We have two weeks we're supposed to do it, and we just go to dinner an hour early and then stay after to clean everything up. It isn't too bad since we take turns. So I have it this week and Saturday was the start. It was a fabulous day to have kitchen duty because we had belgian waffles with strawberries and everything, and we were some of the first ones to eat them.

Since we were already up early me and Annie decided that we wanted to make use of one of our last weekends and go to see Wimbledon. We see the name on the end of the district line almost everyday, so since we knew it was so close it was pretty much neccessary that we go and see it. Of course, being us we didn't bother to find out where the tennis courts actually were though and just took the tube to the end of the line and assumed that it would be right there. This would be the wrong assumption to make. A couple hours and tube stops later we finally made it there, and we felt that our quest was worth it because we got to go into the gift shop and take pictures. And best of all we can say that we've been there. It was pretty cool. Obviously nothing was going on now, but I bet that it would be a hundred times better with everything bustling around and tennis matches going on. As for our wanderings, we just like to think that we are now intimately aquainted with the area.

After Wimbledon we decided to hit up one of our favorite places yet again-- Covent Garden. Our first order of business was to go back to Candy Cakes where we had delicious cupcakes for lunch. I got the banana-toffee one again for lunch, and then an apple-raspberry one for lunch today. I know, I'm extremely healthy. Then we checked out the sweet stands and such, which were different from the last time since we're closer to Christmas now.

Annie had to go to her ward talent show and I needed to go to another art gallery for humanities so we parted ways after covent garden. I went to the Courtauld Gallery at the Somerset House where I got to check out more impressionist paintings. It was also fun because they had an 0utdoor ice skating rink set up outside that looks just like it does in the movies.

Then I met up with Megan in the gift shop of the Tate Modern (we have fun meeting spots) to go to the Southwark Christmas Festival on the Thames together. It was really similar to the other Christmas festivals in Paris and Hyde Park, but they never get old. Christmas is just fun! They had the trees all lighted up and there were cute chalets with food and things for sale. So that brought more happiness to my life.

I spent the last part of Saturday figuring out my tube pass and finishing A Certain Justice by P.D. James for my mystery class. It was funny because I was actually in the basement by myself doing some dishes while reading about murderers. Not the best location.

Sunday-- I went to church like normal and it was fun. We even got candy from South Africa in sunday school. I've decided that candy tastes a hundred times better during church. It's a little early to be getting all sentimental, but I'm really going to miss my sunday school class when I go back. It's just a lot of fun. Our teacher is one of the sweetest people ever and she even had a Scottish accent, which makes listening to her lessons really fun. And everyone is just great. I'm really spoiled in my ward, because no one else has any single adults their age and we have a class of about 15. So I basically love going to class everyday.

The rest of today I pretty much just spent writing this blog, eating, and doing some readings for class. Sundays are always nice and relaxing. I'm really tired though and it's only a couple minutes 'till midnight so I'm going to go to sleep now and just post the pictures tomorrow. It always takes forever and I don't really have the patience right now. Plus, I have to get up early tomorrow for kitchen duty. Breakfast starts at 7:30 every morning. I'm not a morning person by any stetch of the imagination. So just check back tomorrow. I'll stick the pictures at the end of this entry. Enjoy!

A Sample of Christmas on Oxford Street

Kelsy and the skirt I'm going to steal from her

Me being unhappy because I got dragged to another Jane Austen site.

Us being cute in Jane's backyard

The North Pole! We found it!

The Cathedral. At this exact moment I was actually standing in dog poop and didn't know it.

Thanksgiving dinner!

The Operating Theatre

Candy Cakes! You want one.

Wimbledon. Yep.

View from the South side o' the Thames.

Paris: The Fun Continues

2008-11-24T14:36:00.000-08:00

Let's backtrack a little. I just realized that I completely and totally forgot that we went to the Pantheon on Wednesday so I didn't write about it, and that is not acceptable. So I'm going to insert it real quick here. We actually went to the Pantheon in between the Sainte-Chapelle and Rue Mouffetard. It's basically another church with cool architecture, which is why we were supposed to see it for humanities. It was really interesting to go to because almost everything in there has to do with the revolution. The crypt of the church is massive, and there were all sorts of famous people buried there. One random fun person there is Madame Curie. Now you know.

Ok, I feel much better now. I believe that we left off on

Thursday-- This was our hard core museum day. We decided to sleep in (we didn't leave until 9:30! Whooo!) before heading out to our first stop at the Musee de Rodin. I had a lot of fun at the Rodin, for a reason that will soon be revealed. The museum was pretty much all sculptures by Rodin, so that was pretty cool because it was different from other places. It was also cool because some of the art was inside this old hotel/house thing, but some of it was just outside in the garden too. It was in the garden where the real excitement occurred. It all happened because I realized that I had seen these statues before, when I was visiting Tara at Stanford in the summer. And we had fun taking pictures with them there, so I got really excited when I realized they had the same ones at the Rodin and made Tracy and Megan recreate the pictures I took with Tara. I was very happy. So that was pretty much the highlight of that museum.

Our next stop was at the Dome Church, also known as the Hotel des Invalides, which is where Napoleon was buried. Megan is a history major, so it was pretty much required that we go there. I didn't mind at all. French history is actually pretty fascinating. My poli sci class last semester was all about comparing the French Revolution to the American Revolution, and it was incredibly interesting. So the Dome Church was pretty cool, and it was really close to the Rodin so we were walking past it anyways.

From there we walked across the Seine to the Orangery. Going along with the French Revolution tract, the area right next to the Orangery is where the guillotine was. The Orangery in contrast was a very wonderful place though; my favorite museum of the whole trip. I think that one of the reasons that I liked it so much is because it was nice and small. Sure, the Louvre has amazing pictures. However, it is incredibly intimidating because it's so huge. I don't know that you could ever have the time to adequately appreciate all of the works there. The Orangery on the other hand is much more intimate. I think the real reason that it was my favorite though was because of the two waterlily rooms. These two rooms held massive paintings of waterlilies by Monet. I'd heard about them before, and I was always wondering what the big deal about some pictures about waterlilies was. I'll just say that you can't understand it until you're actually there. First off, the rooms were designed perfectly to hold the paintings. As soon as you walk in it just feels right. There's a big oval bench in the middle so you can sit and look at whatever part of the painting most interests you. I think I could have spent forever in that room just thinking. You really can't appreciate impressionist paintings until you see them in person. I've seen reprints of the waterlilies, and I always thought that they looked really boring and couldn't understand why people liked them so much at all. But once you can see a Monet in person everything changes. I'd have to say that the impressionist paintings are my favorite of all the styles we've learned about. So go fly to Paris now and go to the museums there so you can like the impressionists too.

Once we were done with the Orangery (where we ran into Professor Benfell and his family for the second time that day) we went for a stroll across the park to return to the Louvre for round two. On our way there we decided to stop for some delicious crepes. That really enhanced my experience. I got one with powdered sugar though, and I proceeded to get the sugar all over both myself and Megan. I thought it was funny; I'm sure that we looked really presentable for the Louvre.

In the Louvre we decided to get right down to business and systematically went through every room that held paintings on our humanities worksheet. I definitely think it was a good thing to have some guidance as to what to look at. There was a ton of stuff we were supposed to see though, like David, Poussin, Gericault, Caravaggio, Rembrandt... I think that my favorite painting there was Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix. You'd most likely recognize it because it's the cover of Coldplay's new album Viva la Vida. Some of the girls brought their iPods with them and sat in front of it while they listened to the song. I much preferred the original meaning of the painting though, which was again was about the revolution. It's amazing. So next time you see the CD pay more attention to the picture on it. Two of my other favorites were The Oath of the Horatii by David and The Raft of Medusa by Gericault, in case you were wondering. The paintings were all so massive. I couldn't imagine actually painting something that big. So we enjoyed ourselves looking at everything. Unfortunately one of the wings we were supposed to see was closed though ( the one we tried to see the night before of course) so we didn't get to see everything. By that point I think I was almost numb to incredible artwork though so it might not have been the worst thing. I guess I'll just have to go back now...

Ok, so this doesn't really relate to anything but I just wanted to mention that there was a Starbucks inside the Louvre. Any doubt that they're trying to take over the world has now fled.

Back to what happened. At this point it was absolutely necessary that we sit down and eat again. We never really get to stop walking, so dinner is fabulous. We stopped at a French Restaurant right along the Seine on the way to our next museum called La Fregate. I got this amazing almost spaghetti dish that had salmon on top of it. I know it sounds like a funny combination, but it totally worked. They also have the best bread at these French restaurants. I love bread. People in Europe always give us the weirdest looks when we order tap water though. They always seem to think that we misunderstood the question they asked. Even in London they can't seem to grasp the idea that we don't want any alcohol, and on top of that we don't even want bottled water. It's kind of funny to watch because every time they come back they keep asking us if we want something.

Once our feet and brains were sufficiently rested we moved along to the Musee d'Orsay, which ended up in a close second for favorite museums. The first thing we looked at was a temporary display that was really fascinating. Apparently Picasso was enamoured by the painting Luncheon on the Grass by Manet (note the A) so he just used the same idea from it over and over again. The whole couple rooms were full of all his different attempts at getting it the way he wanted. They had pulled the pieces from art galleries all over the world, and it was really interesting to see them all next to each other and next to the original Manet. I had no idea that he would try the same thing so many times. His last piece with the figures from the painting was cut out of cardboard and they made into concrete. Go figure.

The upstairs was probably my favorite part of the museum though, and seeing the art up there was totally worth climbing more stairs even though our feet were killing. Upstairs held more fabulous impressionist works, including paintings by Monet (my favorite), Renoir, Van Gogh, and many more. They're just so amazing to look at. I wish we had more time there, but we only had an hour and a half for the whole thing because we had to meet at the docks at 8 for...

... our group boat ride on the Seine. This was another one of our perks thanks to the good exchange rate. It was a lot of fun. The whole program got to go on this tour boat to see Paris from the water. It was absolutely gorgeous at night. We got to ride past all sorts of fun places like Notre Dame, all the museums we had just been to, the Latin Quarter, and the Eiffel Tower, which was where we had started. We took lots of pictures as you might have guessed. Once it was over we wandered around under the eiffel tower some more and down some random streets and ate more crepes because we wanted to. This time I had a chocolate and banana one. We also went on a quest for any kind of restroom because I had to go to the bathroom really bad, but we couldn't find one anywhere. Not cool.

Friday-- Although we had a thousand pictures of the Eiffel Tower and had walked around it a couple times we had never actually gone into it. We determined that this was a problem. So, after ditching our bags at the left luggage part of the train station we determined to go there. Also, it was Sabrina's 21st birthday so naturally we had to celebrate. At this point in case you're wondering our group consisted of me, Megan, Sabrina, Talyn, Kelsy, and Michele. We had either what can be seen as good or bad luck on the way to the Eiffel Tower when a monsoon hit. It was bad because by the time we got there we were completely soaked (umbrellas don't work), and when we got to the top we couldn't really see anything. But, it was also good because even if we couldn't see much from the top at least we were inside when most of the raining took place, and it didn't rain for the whole rest of the day while we were outside. We didn't get to actually go outside on the top though because it was so wet and windy. Up at the top it actually looked like it was snowing. And it was so windy that you could feel the tower moving underneath you, which is a little unnerving. Obviously the tower didn't fall over though, because I'm pretty sure that you would have heard about that on the evening news. It was really cool to see out the windows on top. It's SO high up. All of the massive buildings look tiny. You can't even really see people or cars. We got to go out on the platform of the second level and that was still incredibly high. Even from the first level the people were tiny. The first platform was actually pretty cool because they had almost a little mall area in there that was complete with a cinema (granted it was a film about the tower), a gift shop (of course), and a super sweet post office (that has a special postmark). I also found the bathrooms I had been looking for the night before. Apparently they keep them hidden away inside the Eiffel Tower where only people who pay can go.

By the time we exited the eiffel tower we had dried off a little and the sun had come out, so we were pretty happy. I really wanted to see the replica they have of the statue of liberty (on a much smaller scale) and it was only a few bridges from there so we decided to walk. At this point I would point out to any of you planning a trip to Paris that things are not actually as close as they appear from the top of the Eiffel Tower. I'm just putting that out there. So while it looked like it was really close, it was actually a decent walk, but I still though that it was worth it. Especially because on the way back we got to walk on this beautiful path on this island thing in the middle of the Seine. Actually seeing the statue wasn't anything monumental (lame joke, I know), but I still had a lot of fun checking it out up close. I have to admit that most of my desire to see it came from watching National Treasure 2 though.

After trekking over the the statue we had our beautiful walk back to the main viewpoint of the Eiffel Tower so that we could get a special birthday picture of it and Sabrina. If you have a birthday in Paris I think it's pretty much required that you take a picture with it. From there we hopped back onto the Metro (did I mention that it's not as nice as the tube? Because I've completely lost track of what I have and haven't written about at this point) to go to the Christmas Fair! I've decided that I love Christmas fairs. It's so much fun to be in Paris and London around Christmas time. There are lights up along all of the streets and there's all sorts of festivities. It's so gorgeous and fun to see all of it. But if any of you think that Christmas comes early in the states think again, because they definitely started putting up lights several weeks before Halloween. But it's so cute and fun that I don't mind at all. I went shopping down Oxford street and there were all sorts of fun Christmas window displays and lights hanging everywhere. I just loved it. But I'm supposed to be writing about Paris right now so I had better go back to that. Anyways this Christmas fair went all up and down this one street (I'm awful with names, but it's famous) and ended with a sweet Ferris Wheel. The street was just lined with these adorable little ice chalets that had an assortment of little shops and food stands in them. I got a chocolate covered apple at one of them, a ring at another, and a heavenly waffle with whip cream and chocolate and bananas on it at yet another one. Just to illustrate how good the waffle was I ended up with chocolate and whip cream all over my knuckles and thumb and Megan got some in her hair. The whole set up of the street was just adorable. They even managed to import real snowmen for the occasion. There are similar fairs in London right now and I can't wait to go. In fact, maybe I'll do that tomorrow...

One of the last things that we decided it was absolutely necessary to do was shop, so we hit up the shopping center of the world because we could. Also, the fair was already pretty much on the same street. Luckily for us most of the stores in Paris would have the prices of the clothes displayed in the window listed outside so we had a decent idea of whether we could afford to walk into a store or not. Let me just say that they had some really nice stuff there. After roaming down the street and trying stuff on we still had some time left over in Paris so we decided to return to Rue Moefftard so that we could go back to the chocolate store that had been closed before. It was totally worth it, especially because we had time to go into more of the little stores this time and I found the perfect something that I had been searching for for Amber the whole Paris trip. So that was successful. And in the chocolate shop I decided to indulge myself and buy the bag of chocolate truffles. I couldn't not get French truffles in France, now could I? They taste like perfection, so it was thoroughly worth it. Oh, I forgot to mention that right before this on the same street I had bought an amazing slice of citrus tart. I also bought a whole thing of French bread on the street too (for dinner of course). So for those of you keeping track, yes that does mean that in the matter of a few hours I had downed a chocolate apple, banana chocolate and whip cream waffle, citrus tart, and loaf of bread. This is in addition to the chocolate cereal, hot chocolate, yogurt, and bread I had already consumed that morning. If I come back a little chubbier than I left you know why. But I think it's required to eat lots in France since it's so amazing. I didn't eat anything bad the whole trip.

Eventually we had to leave for the train station, but on the way to the metro we got distracted one more time and ended up in a outlet for Andre, which is a really nice shoe store. It was there that I made the impulse buy of another pair of high heels. They're pretty and fun to look at. Megan got a fabulous pair of heels as well. By the time we made it to the train station we were all loaded up with bags and I'm pretty sure that we looked a little ridiculous but we all felt very satisfied with ourselves. I had to stand guard off all of our stuff while they went through the security to get out bags back from the left luggage. Other people from the program just stared when they walked by. But it was a great conclusion to our trip. When we finally boarded the train to make our way back home we felt that we had done a really good job of experiencing Paris in the time we had. I know that I've probably left lots of little things out, but hopefully this is a good enough account of what we did. Actually it's probably longer than you would prefer... But we did so much it couldn't possibly be told in any less words.

Just to tie things up I'm going to make a short note about the Saturday after we got back. Basically I was still in the mood to spend money, so me and Annie hit up Portobello Market again. I bought so much stuff but it's ok because it was mostly presents. Here's a sample of the type of things I bought though: I got my self a super sweet thermos that is bright orange and has bright colored flowers on it. Oh yes. We spent all day there and it was great. I even got a new shirt for only two pounds. I'm sure going to miss Portobello...

Ok, I think that's it. I'm done. I appologize for all the spelling and grammar mistakes, but there is no way in heck I'm going to read through this and edit it. I never do actually. But I hope you had a fun time reading it! I've been working on it during every but of free time I've had in the past few days, mostly at the expense of my sleep. It's actually 1:15 in the morning right now. In case you can't tell I'm saying this to get your pity so that you will leave me a comment. Do it now. I love you all, but I haven't had any comments on the last three entries and that's just not nice. So do the right thing.

Have a great Thanksgiving and I miss you all!

I'll try and put the pictures up tomorrow. There's just a lot and the internet here isn't so great so it takes a long time. But now that they've taken so long you'll appreciate them more, right?

Parisian Pictures

2008-11-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

Note to all those who look at this:

There is a prerequisite to viewing these pictures. First, you must read the past two blog entries. Only then you may proceed to looking at these fabulous pictures. I promise that it will be much more enjoyable this way.

Best Wishes, Natalie.

Waiting to get on the train!

My first picture with the Tower. There are many more to come.
Sooo pretty

The front of Versailles. As normal please ignore the scaffolding.
Golden Gates!

Being stylish in the Hall of Mirrors

The massive grounds I talked about. You can't even see all of it.

The house we decided looked like Belle's house in Marie Antoinette's village.

I know that when you all imagine Versailles the first thing you picture is this serverly overweight cow.

Pondering the tower...

It was time to get more original.

The Arc de Triumph

The sweet view from the top of one of the incredibly long streets

More cityscape

The coolest dealership I've ever seen

On top of Notre Dame. I think he's about to eat the Eiffle Tower.

Pretending to be gargoyles in front. I think we really pull it off.

The back. Check out those flying buttresses! Oh yes humanities.

Being modern art at the Pompidou

The best pizza place ever. It's next to the Louvre.

The Louvre at night.

The statues I got way excited about. Compare to the next picture.

See? I think it's a little warmer in this one though...

Napolean's tomb

Outside the Dome Church

Cool park in front of the Louvre.

Me in front of the Louvre. Can you tell we spent a lot of time here?

We even went inside the Louvre!

Bonding with Monet. Don't worry we were allowed to take pictures.

Monet up close and personal

Me and Renoir. Good times.

Notre Dame at night

You so want to be on this street right now

From the second level of the Eiffle Tower.

Chillin' with Lady Liberty

A puddle on the cool path we got to walk down.

Ta da! it's the Eiffle Tower from the front in the day.

Delicious choclate covered apple at the Christmas fair.

The remains of an amazing waffle. Just imagine it.

Yummy Tarts

Viva la Paris!

Paris: The Saga Begins

2008-11-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

Paris.

I don't even know where to begin. I guess traditionally the beginning is the best. But brace yourselves, because this will be a long one. But it'll be fun! I pinky swear.

Here we go!

Monday-- As you probably already guessed based on my other travel stories we got up early. We headed to Paris via the train, starting at St. Pancras (which is the international station right next to King's Cross, for those Harry Potter fans). We got to ride through the Chunnel, which I guess was pretty cool but it was kind of a let down because it's just a really long, dark tunnel. But, the fact that it takes you from London to Paris makes it about a hundred times better.

We actually didn't spend much time in Paris the first day though. As soon as we got into the city we boarded a coach that took us to Chartres Cathedral, which is really famous for its medieval stained glass and gothic architecture and such. Our tour guide was Malcom Miller, who is famous because he's been studying the cathedral for like 40 years so it was cool to hear the history of the building from him. Our train was late so we didn't get to spend as much time there as planned, but we got to wander around a little after the tour in the cathedral and around the town. It was a cute little place. One of the little patisseries also provided my first opportunity to use the little but of French I had learned in our five minute lesson the night before. They had no idea what I said. But I still managed to get my strawberry tart so I guess it all worked out.

By the time we got back into Paris it was decently late, but there was no way we could just stay at the hotel. So, since it was night we decided to go meander (if you can meander on the metro, that is) over to the Eiffel Tower and see it all lit up. A few train changes later we found ourselves looking at one of the world's most famous landmarks in all of it's glory. It was pretty and blue, and therefore we took a ton of pictures. I have to admit that it was different than I thought, but it was still really captivating. Pretty much as soon as we got off the metro (the metro is Paris' version of the underground, but the way) we had a fantastic view of it. Unfortunately the view was tainted a little by the guys who kept approaching tourists trying to sell little eiffle tower keychains ("three for a euro! we're practically giving it away!"). They would come right up and insert themselves into your group and jangle their keychains at you. This wouldn't be too bad if it only happened once, but they were swarming all over the place, and they were at every single touristy place-- Versailles, Notre Dame, etc. By the end of the week I just wanted to avoid them like the plague. But going to the touristy places was still worth it, I admit. Especially because the Eiffel Tower totally glitters on the hour. And I mean it full on glitters-- you know when it starts because you can see the lights reflecting off all of the buildings nearby and even off the clouds. It's pretty awesome. We decided to wait to actually go up in the eiffle tower until daytime, so we just walked around. The whole area is very nicely landscaped with a park and water fountains, and there's a carousel and everything right next to it so it's a fun atmosphere.

We got panini's to celebrate. Well, we might have just been hungry but it could've been to celebrate being there. It was just another one of the many moments where I couldn't really believe that I'm here. I mean, it was a school night. I could've just as easily (make that more easily) have been in Provo doing homework. The whole Paris trip was kind of like that because to me it was just kind of this huge bonus. I've always wanted to study abroad in London, but I hadn't made any plans to go to Paris. When I found out that the program was going there it was a huge added surprise. I'm really glad that we went to France. Obviously having gone to England and Ireland and Wales I've been in other countries, but being somewhere where they speak a different language is a completely different experience.

Eventually we had to go back to the hotel. We figured that we should go to bed earlier than usual so we'd have more energy for our exploits the next day, but as usual we got distracted and didn't fall asleep until like 1:30. But at least we had good intentions. Staying in the hotel was a lot fun. Mostly because it was an actual hotel. We all got to stay in rooms of two. That might now seem like much to you, but after you've been living in a small room with 12 other girls it starts to seem pretty magical. And I got to room with Megan, who is tons of fun. You'll be seeing her in a ton of my pictures. There were two beds in the room, but it was bunk bed style so being the good people we are we switched off every night. The bottom queen bed was like heaven. This was definitely a cheap one star hotel, but the mattresses at the centre are rocks and the one at the hotel was almost soft so I really enjoyed it. We also had lots of fun conversations late at night in our room on philosophical topics such as mailboxes. Good times. Also, I really liked the hotel because they had the most delicious chocolate cereal, and instead of hot water they had hot milk to make hot chocolate. And they had a thing full of whole loaves of french bread with a giant knife to just cut off a hunk to eat. Much better than the questionable meals at the hostels...

Tuesday-- Since we've already talked about breakfast I guess that it's only natural to move on to the second day. We actually started Tuesday off by meeting the rest of the program in the lobby to go to Versailles. I hate to admit it, but I wasn't all that impressed with Versailles. I think I've become desensitized. Show me a giant solid gold plate and it won't even phase me. I've already seen it a hundred times this trip. I know that I should have appreciated it more, especially since all of the other palaces we've been to were pretty much based off this one, but while I was inside I was mostly just bored. Also, they had really strange modern art pieces that totally and completely distracted from the history. As an example, in the middle of one of the state rooms there was a huge sculpture of Michael Jackson and his monkey, Bubbles. Ya. The rest of the works of art consisted mostly of balloon animals, inflatable pool toys, and pop culture icons. Thankfully the outside of Versailles was much better. The grounds were massive. They must have stretched for miles and miles. Of course, we decided to set out to the farthest corner of the grounds to see Marie Antoinette's village. We had to take a break and eat some more panini's before getting there, and by the time we reached the village we were dead tired and kind of crabby, but it was totally worth it because it was the best part of the whole place. Apparently Marie Antoinette had this whole little village made so that she and her friends could escape the court on the weekends and pretend to be be peasants. The houses she had were all really cute, but I'm pretty sure that they looked a lot more like the village in Beauty and Beast than any real peasant's place. In fact, we decided (ok, it was Annie) that one of the houses looked exactly like Belle's in the movie, so we had to reenact the opening song complete with the book. Unfortunately the only book we had on us was P.D. Jame's A Certain Justice that we're reading for mystery class. I'm pretty sure that's not the one Belle was talking about in her song. But nevertheless it still worked for the pictures. And we took a lot of pictures because it was all just to picturesque. There was even a cute little farm complete with goats, donkeys, chickens, and the fattest cow I've ever seen.

With all of the walking involved in visiting Versailles we didn't actually make it back to Paris until dinner time. We decided that after such a workout we deserved a nice sit-down dinner. It's fabulous because since the exchange rate is so much better than it used to be the program has tons of extra money. One of the many benefits of this is that they gave us 80 pounds to spend on food while in Paris. That means we had between 15 and 20 pounds a night verses the 5 we usually get when we're away from the center. This was the source of great happiness. The people I was with ate out every night, because why not? Food is part of the experience of France. Everything I ate was absolutely delicious regardless of where I got it from. Plus, out feet were so sore from walking and climbing stairs (and this is with us being conditioned from living in London on the 4th floor) that it was worth almost any price just to be able to sit down and relax for an hour or two. So the first night after doing a little bit of window shopping we lucked out by finding a place that had a menu in English, which was much appreciated after attempting to read French all day, called Frankl'in Cafe. I got really tasty chicken and french fries. Just to let you know, the french fries taste the same in the states as the do in France. Just putting it out there.

After refueling we decided to be productive and go to the Arc de Triumph. It's a big arch in the middle of the city and it has lots and lots of stairs to get up to the top. But it's totally worth the burn because once you get to the top you can see a ton of the city. It was gorgeous on top because we went up at night so we could see all of the city lights. All of the major streets meet at the arch too, so you can see all the way down them. One of the streets is considered to be the shopping center of the world, so that was cool. After talking to Sabrina and Talyn, who we happened to run into up there, we decided to go for a leisurely stroll down it even though most of the stores were closed in search of some sort of a dessert. I decided on the McFlurry. I know, really high class. But so far I've accidentally had one in every country so I figured that I should keep it up. So far the rankings are: United States a definite first, Ireland in second, the UK in third, and France in tragic last. The one in France just really wasn't all that good. However, I was proud of myself for successfully ordering it. Even though the guy felt bad for my awful French and switched over to English.

Wednesday-- This was our first fully free day. Of course, I mean fully free as in we had a whole list of museums to go to for humanities. But I didn't mind that at all because I'm pretty sure that when you go to Paris you're required to go to museums, and since I don't know all that much about art any guidance as to where to go is very welcome. We actually planned out our whole day while sitting in McDonald's the night before too, so we were way ready when the time came (far too early once again) to wake up. Our first stop of the day was Notre Dame, and yes me and Megan did pose like gargoyles for a picture out front. It just had to be done. The actual church was gorgeous. It's probably one of my favorites, mostly because of it's location. Notre Dame is actually situated on an island type thing in the middle of the Seine, so it's right next to the river and just gorgeous. The inside is pretty, but the best was going up to the towers because you got up close views of the gargoyles and could see the whole city spread out. Unfortunately, in order to see the fabulous view you had to climb a thousand of those tiny spiral stairs. After the Arc de Triumph my legs were not too happy with me. Once you got up there you forgot about the stairs though. And all of the gargoyles are awesome to see up close. Now I want to watch the Hunchback of Notre Dame again, even though I never liked that movie all that much. We were lucky because the weather was really nice too. The whole time we were in Paris it was really cold, but we actually were able to stay dry pretty much the whole time. The weather might not be as nice in November, but it's definitely worth going in the off season because you miss the huge crowds. Apparently usually you would spend the majority of your time in lines, but we were able to walk right in to everything. For example, the next place that we went was the Sainte Chapelle, which is really close to Notre Dame. It was this beautiful little chapel that is made almost entirely of stained glass. At first I was a little skeptical of visiting yet another church, but I'm so glad that I went in because it's definitely one of my favorites. We ran into the Wimmer's in there and they said that even though they had been to Paris a few times before they had never made it into the Chapel because the lines were always too long. I would have hated to miss it. It's much better to be nice and spoiled in the off season. It's totally worth the occasional scaffolding and bad weather.

Oh, a slightly important detail to my story. Going into Notre Dame we had a slightly difficult group of eight people. The church was so massive though that me, Megan, and Tracy kind of lost everyone else. So we wandered around and looked for them for a bit but then decided to give up. So from this point forward it was mostly just us, which actually worked out pretty well because it's a lot easier to manage three people than eight. Especially when all the stores and restaurants are pretty small. We decided to follow our plan for the day as outlined though just in case we happened to run into the rest of the group (as a side note, only two of us had cell phones and we couldn't get them to work in case you're wondering why we couldn't find each other). So after the Sainte Chapelle we followed our schedule and headed to Rue Mouffetard, which is supposed to be one of the oldest shopping streets in Paris. Most of the stuff of the street was too expensive, but it was still fun to go down because there was an assortment of boutiques and food places and it was narrow so you just walked down the middle of the street. We stopped there for a crepe because as usual we were absolutely starving. We decided to get a "savory" crepe, which is one that has meat and cheeses and stuff in it. I'd never had one before and I figured that there was no better place to try one. Man, when they say savory they really mean savory. I got one with chicken, egg, and cheese and it was beautiful. It looked fantastic and tasted good, but there was no way in heck I ever had a chance of finishing that thing. I made it half way, and I'm surprised that I even made it that far. It's not that it was really big or anything, it was just ridiculously filling. And afterwords I felt like I would die unless I got something sweet, like a cookie, stat. Our plan was to get something at Nicolsen Chocolatier, which we were told had pretty much the best chocolate in France, but it was tragically closed for lunch.

So we just tried not to think about dessert too much (which I failed at) and started to make our way over to the Pompadour, which is a museum of modern art we were supposed to check out for class. On the way we got distracted by all of the cool shops that we walked past though. Tracy found a sweet bag and the two of them bought postcards. I was generally just picky and didn't buy anything. Eventually we made it to the museum, which was massive. We ended up only going to the top to exhibition floors to look at their modern art. I found it kind of exciting at first. After looking at a bunch of old paintings for class I welcomed the new kind of art that involved things like rope hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately by the time we made it there it was only three in the afternoon, and we were already beat. The walls were all white and the exhibits required a lot of thinking and it just sapped all of our energy. By the end me and Megan were just walking zombies. Some of the stuff was a little frightening as well... But they also had a lot of really cool stuff. I think my favorite thing was this Picasso they had. It didn't look very much like you would expect a Picasso to, but I loved it. By the time we reached the end of the second floor we had to get out of there fast though so we could wake back up. On the way out we stopped in the gift shop (of course) where Megan found the exact journal she wanted so that was magical, and right when we left the building we ran into the people we lost earlier in the day and we proceeded to take pictures of us out front being "modern art". I think that they might be my favorite pictures from the whole trip. Minus the one of Megan yawning while trying to read a newspaper in French while waiting for the metro. Nothing could beat that one.

We parted ways with the rest of our group again and headed towards the Louvre, as that was next on the list. On the way we (ok, mostly I) proceeded to get even more distracted than the last time and did some more shopping. It was another one of those things that just had to be done. I was determined to buy something. I hadn't really spent money in London thus far, because I always wanted to wait and see what I found in Paris first since I could always go back to places in London later. So, but the time I made it to Paris my money was burning a hole in my pocket, which was very dangerous. So I went into pretty much every store that looked as if it could have something fun and decently affordable. Eventually we found our way into a launderay store because Megan thought it would be fun to get something for her married sister. And when we walked in there were shoes! So I bought some. I found this fantastic pair of heels that were half off and in my size and I was very happy. They only cost 14 euros too, which made the whole thing even better. So I was pretty satisfied with life. I actually wore them to church today and everything because they match my skirt perfectly, in case you were wondering.

We didn't do too much shopping after that success though, because by that point we were famished and looking for an excuse to sit down for an extended period of time. Our shopping took us right to the Louvre, so we turned up one of the streets next to it in search of somewhere delicious to eat and struck gold when we found this pizzeria. I know, a pizzeria in France? But it was honestly the best pizza I have ever had in my life. I can't even describe it to you. It was just pepperoni pizza but it was like they had gotten every component perfect-- the crust, the sauce, the cheese, the meat... I ate the entire thing by myself by the time we left and it was bigger than the plate. There was just no way you could stop eating it. It was well worth having the waiter laugh at us for not understanding anything. Megan felt the same way. Tracy didn't get the salad but she did get a salad and she said that it was also the best salad she has ever had. And, in addition to eating deliciousness, we got to rest our feet and our museumed out brains before tackling the Louvre.

For those of you who don't already know, the Louvre is massive. I guess I had never really realized before that they Louvre is a full out museum. I had always though it was just a giant art gallery, but according to the map 2/3 of the museum is all artifacts and such. We just stuck to the paintings though, otherwise there would have been no hope for us. The actual building has a really interesting history as well. I don't know all that much about it, but I do know that it used to a royal palace and you can tell by the size of it. The thing that I thought was the most interesting though was that they said for a number of years (I'm imagining it was during the revolution) the palace was abandoned, and so it fell into disrepair and squatters moved into it. Apparently all sorts of people had set up camp in there and were having bonfires inside and everything. That's just a little different from what we picture now. The Louvre we saw was much different. We were lucky, because the night we went they had extended hours until 9:45, and by the time we finally had made it there it was already 8. Since we didn't have all that much time we decided to hit up the touristy things while the crowds weren't as big. First we went and saw the Mona Lisa, which I knew would be a let down but knew I would have to see anyways. I have to admit that I liked it more than I though I would, but I defintely wouldn't pick it out as the best picture in the gallery. But it was still fun to see. And I thought it was kind of funny because it was in this intense frame, in glass, with a table in front, with a bar in front of that, with another rope thing in front of that. And there was a guard standing there. So there was no getting close to the Mona Lisa. After visiting her we trecked over to see Venus de Milo (famous marble statue) and Michael Angleou's Slaves, which were pretty cool. Then we started on our assignment for class, looking at paintings by David and Delacroix and more Picasso and other cool people. I still love seeing pictures in person. Art is so much better when you can actually see the original than when you look at a reproduction. I'm getting really spoiled right now. We didn't have much time though. Our goal was to sit in front French paintings and ponder the revolution while sitting for a few minutes before they closed so we climbed up what seemed to be a million stairs. At one point we turned the corner just to see another impossibly long stretch of stairs and Megan just stated laughing because there were so many and we were so tired. We finally made it to the room we wanted to go to, but as soon as we got there they turned us away and sent us back down the stairs becase apparently when they say they close at 9:45 they really mean 9:30. So we climbed the stairs for nothing, but I guess it was kind of funny. By this point we were completely dead so we just hopped on the metro to go back to the hotel, where we fell asleep and never wanted to get back up.

Ok, so I know that you're going to just be dying in suspense to find out what happened during the rest of the week, but I just can't write anymore right now. It's after midnight here and breakfast is at 7:30 as usual, and I've been writing with only small breaks since dinner. So I'm tired, and I'm sure that after all of this reading you are too. So, in order to make us both feel better we're just going to take a break now. I'll try to finish writing tomorrow and post pictures then. But for now good night! Don't let the bed bugs bite. I hope my long winded entry wasn't too painful to read, and there will be more soon.

The Week Songs Got Stuck in my Head

2008-11-16T08:39:00.000-08:00

So, I'm totally not in the mood to do this right now, so apologize upfront if this isn't as entertaining as usual. We're going to return to the good old bullet point form.

Monday-- I have to admit that I don't really remember what happened. I figure that I spent the first part of the day in class, and the latter part writing papers (we had three papers and a test due this week). Monday night was exciting though because President Chiddick (the one we went on the country walk with in the beginning) came to talk to us about the Blitz in London. It was really interesting to hear him speak. I had a lot to do so I was presssed for time, but I wouldn't have minded him talking longer at all. He was pretty young when the second world war started in Europe, but he can still remember a lot of it because something like that is kind of impossible to forget. He lived over where Canary Wharf is now, which was one of the poorer areas of town that got bombed really heavily. He told us about how when the war first broke out they sent him and one of his brothers to live in Wales with a random couple. Apparently in most cases the people that the children went to live with weren't volunteers, but it was something that was required of them and children would just be dropped off at their house if they had space. I think he said that they were there for a couple of years, and that their father only came to visit twice and they never got to see their mother. On the second time their father came he took them home with them. At the beginning of the war the bombing that the politicians and stuff said would come never happened, so people started to think that it never would so some of the parents took their kids home because they thought it was safe. It was really interesting to hear how much of a community thing the war was; obviously I've always known that but I never really realized to what extent it was. He said that everybody was required to something, even if they weren't fit for the army. His father worked with the fire brigade. They took the water from the Thames to fight the flames from bombings and such, and his father told him that at one point of the war the water in the Thames got so low because it had been draimed so much that you could walk across it from canary wharf to grenwich. That would have been a lot of water used for fighting fires... After President Chiddick was back in the city he said that the bombings would start as soon as the sun went down, and then wouldn't let up until the sun rose the next morning. They had a little bomb shelter like everyone else in the backyard where they would spend everynight. It was a small space, and the ground was just a little dug out area with dirt. Apparently it would fill up with water when it rained and you would just stand in it. He also said that they turned out all of the lights in the city, and that you could see the planes that were coming to drop bombs in the spotlights that they had. He and his brothers thought it was kind of exciting since they were so young, but he figures it must have been terrifying for his mother. He also talked about the food rationing they had. The food rationing actually didn't stop until a number of years after the war. He said that when the American soldiers were all over London before D-Day they were all known for the gum that they chewed, because it was something that they didn't have at London at the time. They had very small sugar rations, along with other things, that for weddings the brides would just make cakes out of cardboard and then decorate it to look like a real cake. Also as precautions no bells were allowed to be rung in churches for the entire time of the war, and they took down all of the road signs so if troops parachuted down from the enemy they wouldn't know where they were and it would delay them for a little bit. I'm pretty sure that they haven't put all of them back up. You've probably heard a lot of this stuff before, but it was really interesting to hear it from someone who had experienced it first hand. We learn about it in text book so it seems like it was forever ago, but it really wasn't. On a less serious note on Monday I also got horribly distracted and went shopping instead of doing all of the homework I had planned on...

Tuesday-- I don't recall doing anything on tuesday other than homework and class (this might be a lie, everything blurs together by the end of the week) until after dinner when the whole program went to the Opera. I actually enjoyed it a lot. We had fun getting dressed up and stuff. It was a National English Opera (so they sang in English, thank heavens) production of Verdi's Aida. It was really well done. I wrote two whole pages on it for my humanities class (so far I'd never broken a page for those things) so that says something at least. I'm still a long way from watching operas for fun, but I liked going to this. Yep.

Wednesday-- Field trip day! It's like we're in elementary school again but way better because our field trips are so much cooler and we have at least one a week. Life is good. So wednesday we went to Hampton Court, which is another Palace just outside of London. The architecture of this one was really interesting (you can tell that I'm in humanities) because half of it is Baroque and the other half is tudor because they ran out of money and such halfway through the rennovations. I like the Tudor side better because its cool and old and we've already been to a bunch of Baroque places. We got to run around there pretty much all day and check out things like the King and Queen's apartments and the massive kitchens that would serve 600 people. It's also supposed to be haunted by Catherine Howard, Jane Seymour and others which is a plus. Sadly we did not see them. We did however get to make fools of ourselves taking pitures in the gardens and making a music video of "I Love You Baby" which can be viewed on facebook. We also got to eat lunch in the restaraunt there because the program has so much extra money now that the exhange rate is so much better now. Commoners would have never been able to do that before, so that makes us cool I'm sure. After we got back we took advantage of one of the few open weeknights we have left to go see a musical! Oh yes. We saw Les Mis, which was amazing. I'd never seen it before so I had a lot of fun. Plays in the West End are beyond amazing, and the tickets are so cheap with student prices. Even when ou factor in the exchange rate their a lot cheaper than even like the traveling shows. So it's our goal to take advantage of that.

Thursday-- More class and such. You're getting the idea. After class though my mystery class went to the Imperial War Museum to see the Bond exhibit they had there. That's right, more Bond. It was pretty cool. They had a bunch of stuff on Ian Fleming and cool old Bond gadgets and such. They even had blood-splattered shirt Daniel Craig wore in Casino Royale. Good stuff. After the war museum we ran and got tickets for Lion King. Amazing. All of the dancing and costumes and everything was awesome. Plus, who doesn't like the Lion King?

Friday-- We actually broke the pattern by not having class, but I did have to start out the day by waking up early and taking a test. But we made up for it by going to Borough Market. It's a huge food market and it is really tasty. I had a banana toffee muffin and frechly made pasta and freshly pressed apple juice... And this was all actually homework. I wish all of my homework involved going to outdoor food markets in London. Also for homework we went to Fortman and Mason, which is an incredibly upscale grocery store. It's been open since 1707 in Picadilly and you used to only be able to go in there if you were of a certain class. We went in there in jeans and we were seriously under-dressed. To go grocery shopping. They had the coolest food there, but I couldn't really afford it. After looking at lots of expensive things me and Annie decided to go on one of our walks for class, so we did the theater walk since we were already in Picadilly. We'd already been everywhere the walk had been since we've been to so many plays, but it was a lot of fun and we took a lot of pictures and such. That night I had to pay for my fun by buckling down and writing a paper though. But now I'm pretty much done with all of my homework until after Paris! So it was worth it. Plus nothing is ever open at night in London.

Saturday-- It was a lovely day filled with joy and happiness. We went on the Little Venice walk, which was pretty nice and relaxing, and then we walked to Camden market where I may have accidentally spent a good amount of money and enjoyed every moment of it. The market just kept going forever and it was beautiful. So we spent lots of time there, and then came back to the center where I met up Kelsy and we went to Spamalot. Spamalot was just a ton of fun, especially since they made fun of other musicals like Phantom and Les Mis. Suffice to say we had a lot of fun.Today-- Went to church like normal and we got to watch a video in primary! I think I was just as excited or more as the little kids. We watched The Pincess and the Pea Chronicles: The Faulty Falcon where we got to learn that judging people is bad. So make a note of that all you boys and girls.

By the end of this week I had a weird mixture of Aida, Les Mis, Lion King and Spamalot stuck in my head. They're all good seperately, but a little strange together...

And now I get to go to Paris for a week! It's like a week off from school, but a thousand times better because we'll be in Paris. I love college trips. We had our meeting for it tonight and it consisted of them giving us money, maps, a metro pass, a museum pass, and then telling us that basically we can do whatever we want until we leave on Friday. I love my life.

Outside of the Opera House
St. Martin's in the Fields at Night!

Chillin' with Henry at his place.

The Tudor FrontLooking cute on the Baroque side

This is more like it.

Eating in the massive kitchen

Fresh Christmas meat anyone?

I'm glad that they know Portland is so great

Les MisLion King!Little ViennaA Little Sample of Camdenspamalot!

We Plunge into the Big Pit

2008-11-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

This was another one of those weeks where I can't remember what happened in the beginning. Monday seems like it was a month ago, and we probably did do a month's worth of stuff. I thought we had no time in the beginning, but that was nothing compared to this. But I'm loving every minute of it! Well, I guess not so much the minutes that involve writing papers.

So, as per tradition the week started with Monday. Monday and Tuesday we had a church history trip, so we got up super early and got onto the coach as usual. We were half awake only 10 minutes away from our first destination when BAM! they tell us what we're doing. Professor Wimmer was just doing his normal little spiel about where we were going when all of a sudden we finally get the details about what we'll be doing. We knew we were going to a coal mining museum before, but what they had failed to mention was that the mine is the museum, and that it's 300 feet under ground. That woke us all up pretty fast. I'm actually glad that they didn't tell us what we were doing earlier because I don't think that going into the coal mine was something I would have wanted to think about a lot. Oh, by the way this is in Wales and was at the Big Pit. Look it up. It's still considered a working mine. It was funny because when we got there we had to wait in a line first, and the line wrapped around and there were several TV monitors where you could see other people about to go down and stuff and we're all like "it's just like Disneyland!". And then we realized that this was actually real. Minor difference. "Miner" difference. Haha. Ok, I got that out of my system. Basically this place ended up being awesome. After waiting for a little bit we went over to the lift where we were given real hard hats with sweet lights and packs to go around our waists equipped with the battery pack and an emergency air filter. We knew this place was legit when they made us hand over our cameras and other electronics that had batteries so we wouldn't accidentally start an explosion while we were down there. Then we got to descend down into the pit all packed into an elevator that Amber wouldn't have liked at all. Being down in the pit was the same and different than I imagined at the same time. It was really dark, so you couldn't see past where the group was, but the lights on our helmets actually lit up the area pretty well. The mines themselves were pretty damp, and the majority of the time we were walking around we had to duck our heads because the ceilings were so low. When you weren't too focus on not hitting your head or stepping in a mysterious black puddle you could see the veins of coal in the sides of the walls. All of the tour guides are former miners, so we got to hear all sorts of first hand stories while we were down there. He started working in the mines when he was 18 in one of the smallest parts of the mines. He had to lie down to saw at the side. Apparently the whole time it was wet and the water would run down through their shirt and come out of the bottoms of their pants. Another story he told was about the rats. They kept live horses down in the mines (we got to see the stalls where they were) so they would feed the horses down there, which would attract the rats and there wasn't really anything they could do to get rid of them. So apparently he was working down there one day when all of a sudden he heard a massive group of them coming his way and they just all swarmed over him. He said that all he could do was get down and put his hands over his face. That doesn't sound like much fun at all. He told us the story when he was talking about the little boys that they used to employ to open the doors. They didn't give the boys any light, so they would just stand there in the complete dark with a cheese sandwich in their pocket. And then the rats would come. Not fun. It was while he was telling us these stories that we got to experience total darkness. We turned off all of our lights, and all that was left was the dark. You seriously couldn't even see you hand in front of your face. I tried. And then you just heard the dripping coming from down the mine... I loved going down there. Once we went down I was actually perfectly comfortable, but I couldn't imagine working there all day every day in the dark. It's one thing when you're on a tour, but it's another when you're working their day in and day out in horrible conditions. Not to mention how dangerous it was. They told us a story (while we're still down in the danger zone of course) about a single spark that set off a massive explosion in one of the mines. 400 people died-- almost the entire community. I couldn't imagine that kind of devastation. And then even if those types of accidents didn't happen just breathing the air and being down there was horrible for your health. Our guide said that he went on strike for a year to stop the mining practices in England when Margaret Thatcher was PM. There are still some smaller mines in operation, but in England at least mining is pretty much a thing of the past now. When we were talking to someone at another stop later in the day he remarked what a special experience it was to go down in the mine now because we were able to go down with someone who used to work in the mines, but that in 30 years or so there wouldn't be anyone left with that first hand experience. Going down there was by far the best part of the trip. It's hard to fully appreciate what it would have been like to work there until you see it for yourself.

Ok, we're still on Monday but that was such a massive paragraph that I figured that I better split it up or else everyone would be so intimidated they wouldn't even try to read my blog. Oh, a little side story before I move on to our next adventure. While we were waiting for the lift to take us back up our guide did what everyone here seems to do-- he started talking about the election. Seriously as soon as we start speaking and they figure out we're American the first thing they start talking about is politics. And I'm not even talking about just this week, it's been the entire time we've been here. It doesn't matter where we are either. I've had the exact same conversation at the art gallery, Chartwell, at a street vendor, in the bottom of a coal mine... It's really interesting to hear what they say. First off, they all love Obama. They also think that someone is going to assassinate him. Their conspiracy theories can be quite entertaining. Most of their views tend to be kind of hypocritical though, and it's really starting to get on all of our nerves. They tend to think that they know everything. We've had several ranting sessions to vent our frustrations so we don't take it out on the next innocent Brit who tries to make casual conversation about the election on accident. But enough of that. We'll now return to Monday's activities.

After descending into the pit we wandered around the mining buildings for a bit and then went to the Natural History Museum in Wales where they had a ton of buildings from all different time periods. It was pretty cool. We got to explore and take more ridiculous pictures. We learned that houses back in the day were really dark, but not nearly as dark as the coal mine.

We crashed for the night in Cardiff, which would have been pretty cool since it's the capital of Wales, but unfortunately it gets dark insanely early now (like 4:30) so by the time we got there you couldn't see anything. We attempted to find our way into the city from the hostel but we only made it as far as Tesco (a grocery store) where we bought candy. So we just spent the night avoiding doing our reading for class by talking in the hostel.

Fortunately the sun did come up the next day, so we were once again able to go out in the world and do things. We didn't stick around in Cardiff though. Instead we headed for good ol' Tintern Abbey because I'm with a big group of English majors and Wordsworth wrote a poem there. I think the real objective of this program is to retrace the steps of Wordsworth and Jane Austen. The ruins were really cool though. I like ruins. They're way more fun than un-ruined things. So we got to explore the grounds there, and of course the gift shop as well. No stop is complete without a trip to the gift shop. We also had a really nice moment when the group all came together and we started singing hymns in the center of the abbey. Even though the roof was gone the place still had fantastic acoustics. That was probably the best part.

Then we returned to England, where we stopped in the sweet little town of Ledbury to scavenge for food. I got a tasty smoked chicken and apple sandwich at a little cafe with Michelle, in case you're wondering. It was quite enjoyable. We also went into a little homemade chocolate shop where I got the best mint truffle ever. Then we all met back up as a group to start our church history tour of the area. We actually met up with the same tour guide we had in Preston, so that was pretty cool. We started in town, and then we got back on the bus and drove over the the Benbow farm, which was nearby. The Benbow's were early converts to the church in England and their farm is the center of a lot of church history in the area. The church had a huge amount of success in the area, so a lot of what happened there ended up shaping the church back in the states as people immigrated to Utah. We also got to see the first chapel that the church had. It's pretty much the cutest little church I've ever seen. The church actually didn't own it anymore for a really long time, and then just a few years ago some members in the area saw that the farm the church sat on was for sale and they all came together to raise money to buy it at the auction. Apparently before someone had just parked their tractor in there. Now it's been all refurbished and people can go to visit it like we did. Oh I forgot, prior to visiting the church we hiked up this huge hill/mountain where the apostles would meet and reflect on things. It was absolutely gorgeous. You could see for miles up there.

That was then end of the trip. But don't worry, this chapter of my blog is not yet over because there are still five more days left to report. I told you that we did a lot. Wednesday was a pretty normal day. From what I can remember (which isn't much) I just went to class and did homework until dinner. Boring, I know. But don't worry it gets better because after dinner I went to see Zorro the musical! Those of you who are acquainted with my Zorro obsession (all of you need to watch the 1950's TV show now) will understand what joy this brought into my life. It's a brand new musical that just started this summer and it's awesome. There was fire and fencing and stunts and flamenco dancing and it was basically all one giant fiesta. Definitely one of my favorite things that I've seen so far. Viva El Zorro!

Sadly Thursday did not involve Zorro, but it was a great day nonetheless. We had class in the morning, but then afterwords I finally went to St. Paul's (the program went the day I was sick). It's massive and beautiful. All of the design on the inside is just so intricate and detailed. Also, yesterday just happened to be it's 300th anniversary. They had a huge festival and people got to go in for free. But I didn't go then so let's backtrack to Thursday when I did go. I basically just wandered around, and then wandered up the millions of stairs to the stone gallery where you can get a great view of London. The very top is closed until February, but I got to go to the almost top, which was almost as good. After St. Paul's I went to the science museum for my British studies class where I got to see some of the first steam engines. They're huge and can't even produce as much power as a kid on a tricycle, but you got to start somewhere. So I stayed there for a while and then walked home through Kensington Gardens to get back in time for dinner. After dinner our program went to the Mousetrap, which has been playing continuously for 56 in the West End. Crazy, I know. It's the longest running show in the world. It's an Agatha Cristie mystery, so that was pretty fun.

Friday was a good day. More class followed by going to get tickets to Hairspray and then returning for dinner and then going to Hairspray. It was fabulous. You really can't stop the beat. Nor would you want to. It's also fun because some of it is different from the movie.

Saturday was quite possibly one of the best days I've had in a long time. We didn't have anything scheduled for once, which was glorious. I probably should have used all of that free time to write my three papers that are due this week and start studying for my test, but that would have been lame. Instead me and Annie decided that since everything always closes early we could go enjoy the day and then just work on homework at night. So part one of our grand day out was the Lord Mayor's Show, which is a parade that has been going on for 400 years. The grand finale of the parade is the Lord Mayor (riding to somewhere important to do some traditional thing ) riding in an carriage made of real gold. The English go all out. We got soaking wet (like literally soaking wet. My shoes were mush) but we decided that it was totally worth the experience. Plus, the only parade Annie has ever been to was in Ogden, Utah and I'm pretty sure that does not cut it. I have to admit that as fun as this parade was though that I still like the Rose Parade better. But, I am a loyal Oregonian.

After we saw the golden carriage we went to the Tate Britain, a art museum, where we were good students and looked at the paintings we were supposed to for humanities (of the romantic era, for those of you who were wondering) while attempting to dry off a little. We succeeded a little bit, but unfortunately it was raining even harder on our way back to the tube station. But, when we arrived at our next stop, the National Gallery, we emerged from the underground to find that the sky was temporarily blue. So we smiled and then looked at the rest of the paintings for class in the gallery after running into one of our professors. By the time we were done at the gallery we were starving, so we headed off to Covent Garden where we decided to go have fun because we're fun loving people.

I officially love Covent Garden. On Saturdays they have a market set up there with all sorts of entertainment. They also had toy stores. I LOVE toy stores. I bought a toy mini cooper to add to my collection (I believe this will be my fourth little one to go with my big electric one. Now I just need someone to give me a real one) and mostly just loved life. They even had a classic little store that looked like it came straight out of the 1800's, which it probably did. Just to give an example of how awesome this place is, when we came out of one of the toy stores there were street performers outside. But these aren't just your ordinary street performers. No, there was a five violin ensemble playing classical music, with the occasional opera accompaniment. Where else does this happen but London? So we just had a fantastic time completely losing ourselves to the atmosphere and forgetting about all the stress of school and trying to find out where to live next semester and enjoyed ourselves. We even got the most delicious beautiful looking cupcake. It was banana toffee and came from a adorable little store. I decided that life couldn't get much better. The sun went down though, and so we decided to head back and do "homework" after we ransacked Mark's and Spencer for food (including a tub of cookies) for Sunday. Then we went home and took wonderful warm showers to get the feeling back in my toes and watched two movies (Penelope and Casino Royale) while "doing homework". It was seriously the perfect day. I could live in it forever. Did I mention that I love London?

Finally we make it today, Sunday. It was a much more relaxing day. We had stake conference so we went to that, and then I locked myself in the library where I attempted to write people on facebook back and stuff. I really apologize for being so bad at that. Please don't take it personally; I barely have time to check my email. But know that I love you! Consider this blog as a personal letter to you. These things seriously take me like four hours to do since I have so much to write about and the internet here is about as fast as a snail.

Well, until next time! Enjoy this assortment of pictures. I'm going to sleep.

Going down!

Our goal was to avoid getting the Black Lung.

Us at Big Pit

Do You Know Where We Are?

The Cock Pit

Sheep!

Can You Find All of Us?

Tintern Abbey

I Knew that You'd Want A Visual of My Sandwich

The Streets of Ledbury

On Top of of the World! Ok, maybe not quite.

I think this represents what goes on on our trips pretty well

The Cutest Little Church Ever. Nice Contrast to St. Paul'sView of London from St. Paul's

The Mousetrap

Viva el Zorro!

The Vikings took over the London Streets

Santa! Who doesn't like Santa?

Newspaper boy!

Sweetest Taxis Ever

The Grand Finale all Decked Out in Gold

Bond and Churchill Duke It Out

2008-11-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

This week might be the winner for most things crammed into seven days. I'll do my best to remember what the heck I did.

Monday-- The day started with class, which while I'm sure that's the part you want to hear about the most I'm not going to write about it. When class finished I rushed out to try and do the Whitehall walk for my other class and I totally succeeded in doing it in two hours. It was actually a lot of fun. The weather was cold, but beautiful and the walk took me past all of the administrative type buildings in London and past 10 Downing Street, which is the UK's equivalent of the Whitehouse. And I took lots of pictures, like the one on top. I had to be quick in order to get back in time for our next adventure, to a reading of a new play. The Benfell's (the director and his wife) know a play write from back in Provo, and he's trying to get a production of his play put on in London next year because it's about Handel writing the Messiah and the 150th anniversay of his death is next year. So we got invited to go to the reading where they invite people who would give them money to put it on. It was very cool. We had our names on a list to get in, and the theater was very small so it was nice and intimate. It was fantastic to just see another part of the process that we don't usually get to. Even though the actors were reading from their script it was still really funny and I loved it. When the play finished I finally made it back home, where I promptly got distracted from anything related to homework and went and got some gelato with Annie and Michelle. Then I finally started working on the first of two papers.

Tuesday-- Tuesday started with my first run in forever. It was glorious, but absolutely freezing, which was something I hadn't anticipated. I only did one lap around Kensington Gardens and I thought that all of my limbs were going to fall off. Luckily they didn't. After my run I had more class, where I learned stuff. Then our program went to the matinee program of Oedipus. This was mostly cool because Oedipus was played by Ralph Fiennes, who plays Voldemort. So that was pretty sweet. The actual play was pretty interesting just because I've studied it before and they did it in a more modern style, but mostly I feel like you just watch stuff written by people like Sophocles because you think it's somehow good for your brain. When the play was over we attempted to buy advance tickets for Quantum of Solace, but ended up getting chocolate covered cookies from Marks and Spencer. Then I decided it might be time for me to try and write my paper again. Just when I thought I might be concentrating on my paper it started to snow, and all hope of getting anything done went out the window. Apparently snow in October is like some kind of a record here. It only stuck for a couple of minutes, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. A couple days later a guy told us that this is supposed to be the coldest winter since the 20's. Figures it would happen while I'm here with limited clothes...

Wednesday-- Wednesday was day trip day, and we started at the inhuman hour of 7 AM. Meaning we had breakfast before that. But I grudgingly will admit that as always, it was worth it. Our first stop of the day was Canterbury, which was pretty cool to go see just because I've heard the story of Beckett being murdered in Canterbury Cathedral about 20,000 times since I was admitted into the program. I've even watched the Schama video on it twice. Plus it was cool to go there since so many people have made a pilgrimage there over the years to see Beckett's remains, which were supposed to have healing powers. Of course now people just make the pilgrimage to see the spot where his remains used to be. Luckily we didn't walk there, which would have been way more true to the whole pilgrimage thing. We definitely took the coach, which I appreciated. So the Cathedral was cool, and we got to wander around the town which was pretty cute. They had a market set up which is always fun. After hanging around there we all met up at the coach again and headed off the Chartwell, where Winston Churchill lived. It was pretty cool to go in there and learn more about him. One of the volunteers there was great; he told us all sorts of stories about the house and about when they were filming the movie A Gathering Storm there. I definitely bought two quote books in the gift shop because I couldn't decide between the funny one and the serious one. I have to admit that I never really saw the outside of the house though, because it was all covered in scaffolding since they're going to put a new roof on this week. So even though I've been there if someone showed me a picture of Chartwell I'd have no idea where it was. When we got back to London the day was far from being over. We went straight to the tube station where we went to Leicester Square where they were having the red carpet world premier of Quantum of Solace. Ya. It was sad because we were really late since we had been gone all day, but we figured that we'd never have the chance again so it'd be fun to just go see what an event like that looks like. It was actually really interesting. The main square was roped off, and there were some people who got there really early on the inside in another area. We were on the outside, where you couldn't really see anything except the other people. Oh, and there were two theaters that people were going into to see the movie. One for the famous people, and one for random other people. Apparently we got there just in time though, because not too long after we got there they announced that Prince William and Prince Harry had just arrived, and of course they played the Bond theme song. We were there for awhile, and could only see the screen with footage of what they were doing and we were like "well, it's kind of cool to just know that they're there". It was cool because they were actually going around and talking to a bunch of veterans individually. Because they were socializing with every single person, they eventually made it over to our side where as the guy next to us so eloquently put it, we were close enough "to hit them with a baseball". It was pretty sweet and we actually had a fantastic view because they weren't very far away at all. So now when people sarcastically ask us if we saw the princes when we get back we can say yes. That was pretty much the end of the party there, so we took a thousand pictures in front of the theater and then headed to Pizza Hut because food is good. Unfortunately eating in restaurants in Europe seems to take a considerable amount longer than in the states we didn't get back to the center until like three hours later and I had to write my paper ridiculously fast because it was due at midnight. Let's just say Bond was a lot more fun than the paper.

Thursday-- More class. Class was followed by a "quick" trip to the Library and then the Soane museum. It ended up being that I couldn't find the book I needed for my presentation in mystery class, so I went to a ton of bookstores and never ended up finding it until yesterday night at bookstore number seven. I went to all of these stores instead of actually writing my mystery paper, which was due sooner. I also went to the Soane Museum, which I had to make up for from when I was sick. We were supposed to go look at some paintings, but the place was kind of creepy. This Soane guy must have been the definition of eccentric. It was just a little house, but it was jam packed with all sorts of statues and columns from neo-classical buildings and even a sarcophagus. Who has all of these things? There wasn't even any room to live. I expected some crazy person to jump out from behind a dark corner (did I mention that it was dimly lit?) in the basement at any second. They should definitely film a horror flick there. I didn't stick around there too long. The highlight of my errands was walking by a fruit stand where I got three amazingly delicious asian pears for a pound. I should have bought way more. Of course after my trip I got home just in time for dinner, and thus did not work on my second paper. After dinner we went to the Royal Festival Hall to hear Mozart (and another guy) being performed. I, being tired from the week, may have spaced out a little bit. But don't worry, I still appreciated its beauty. After the concert I'm pretty sure that I did something other than homework, but I can't remember what it was.

Friday-- Halloween! Friday was also a London Study day, so our whole program took a boat on the Thames to go check out Greenwich. The boat ride was a lot of fun and we took pictures as usual. It was also fun because a group of girls in the program dressed up as all of the characters from Peter Pan. They looked pretty fantastic. Anyways, back to the boat ride. It was really fun to be able to see the city from the water. We rode (boated?) past what is considered to be the financial capital of the world. It was really interesting, if that's even the right word, because the guide talked about the bad economic times. Apparently 30,000 people have been laid off in that area of the city alone. There was a big building with a hole at the top of it. He said that it used to be a major US bank. They took the sign down the same day the bank went under. Definitely rough financial times. But back to to happy thoughts. When we reached Greenwich they let us loose to go wherever we wanted (by the way, Greenwich is still considered to be part of London), so we went to the Royal Observatory where they keep the official world time. One of the girls set her watch there so she can now always claim to have the right time when people ask her. The Royal Observatory is also home to the Prime Meridian and they totally have a line there showing it. So we stood with one foot on one side of the world, and the other on the other side. Now my goal of being two places at once is complete. After seeing a giant telescope we went to the market, and then headed back to central London because a bunch of people had to do homework (lame). This marked the beginning of me and Annie's search for anything pumpkin flavored. It was Halloween and we wanted pumpkin chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin bread really, really bad. We went into every little pastry shop and grocery store we could find but had no luck, which was really unfortunate. We still haven't given up hope. Our first mission after we got back though was to get tickets for that night to see Quantum of Solace. We decided earlier in the week that to celebrate Halloween we were going to dress up as Bond girls and go see the movie, so we did that. We got the tickets, and then me and Annie went to High Street Kensington (which is only like a ten minute walk) to try and find "Bond girl clothes". We decided that pretty much everything there was Bond girl material. In fact, we think that must be where they shop. However, we realized that we don't have Bond girl money. We went to T.K. Maxx (just like T.J. Maxx, but with a K. Go figure) and tried on stuff for fun but didn't end up getting anything. Instead we opted to ransack everyone in the center's closets. It worked out really well. So we got all dressed up and then headed off to the movie, which was fantastic. Go see it now. We had a ton of fun getting dressed up, and even more fun taking pictures as Bond girls after we got back. We have a series of photos documenting Fred Weasley meeting the Bond girls. Good times.

Saturday-- I started the day off in the traditional day-after-Halloween tradition by eating candy for breakfast. It was only a little bit. I watched a the video for British Studies at the Wimmer's, and then continued my quest for the elusive mystery presentation book. I got back just in time to leave with the group to go see The Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde in Richmond. The first half of the show was really slow, but the second half was hilarious so it made up for it. The play was definitely like 3 hours long though, which wasn't so great for my paper writing. Of course, when we got back I went out to dinner with Annie at Tuk Tuk (tasty cheap Thai food on Queensway) instead of going to my paper. But don't you worry, because after that I went back to the center, sat down, and wrote my paper in exactly an hour. Then I went and watched the fourth Harry Potter with some people so we could celebrate the fact that we saw David Tennant and Ralph Fiennes live on stage. I also got caught up on uploading pictures to facebook.

Sunday (AKA Today)-- Today I woke up to the surprise that Alex, one of the other girls in my ward was sick and that I had the pleasure of teaching her primary class at church. I'm sure it was a quality lesson, considering I didn't even have the time to look at what the lesson was on. So I ended up giving a improv version of the story of Ammon from memory. Then the kids (who were age 4 to 7) got to draw what they thought Ammon looked like for the next half hour. There were also a few failed attempts to get them to sing involved. Overall I'd have to say it went pretty well though, because nobody died and the kids all seemed pretty happy at the end. After church me and Lindsay decided to go on one of our walks for class because it was just a beautiful fall day. It was a fantastic idea. We did the Holland Park walk, which is actually right in the area where we live. The walks are fun because we get to see a lot of the areas that we might not have found otherwise. The neighborhoods were really cool and there were all sorts or really sweet houses. It almost didn't even seem like we were in central London anymore. It was funny because it seemed like we were in a completely different area, but we were really just across the street. It was the perfect crisp fall walk. I'll have to go back. After the walk and dinner we had a group devotional where we sang lots of hymns which is always fantastic. Any excuse to sing hymns is always good. Then I wrote this blog. Then end.

So, that's it. Tomorrow we're going to Wales.

If this blog somehow wasn't enough reading for you, here's a link that has the cool history of the place where we live. So read it. Here's a sample, Ernest Shackleton the Antarctic explorer lived here. http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=1690

Toodles.

Canterbury Cathedral

The spot where Beckett's remains used to be.

Winston Churchill's Bench

Winston Churchill's House. Can't tou tell?

Super Sweet Hats

Bond!

We had to take pictures like this. It was like required.

Paparazzi style Prince William shot. I'm kind of ashamed.

The theater

By the end I'll have a picture of Big Ben from every anglethe Prime Meridian My side of the hemisphere is so much better than hers
The Bond Girls. Don't mess with us.

Bond Girls meet Harry Potter. We had fun.
The beginning of the walk today.

Random Cool Street We Didn't Even Know Existed

We Also Found Giant Turtles

We Have Irish Adventures

2008-10-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

I think that this is a good time to note that I haven't watched any TV in the soon to be 2 months that I have been away from home. In the face of hearing about how funny the new episodes of the Office are, I think that this shows that I have a really stong character.

Ok, now we can move on.

I did nothing all last week (like I literally did not leave the center except for like two times when I made the trek to buy more sprite. with assistance). But then I miraculously got better in time to go to Ireland! Yay!

So then we went to Ireland.

I guess I'll give you some more details, because it was amazing.

So our adventure started at the Notting Hill tube station, where we rode to the Victoria station and caught the Gatwick express to the Gatwick airport. There we sat on the floor until we could check in, and then we sat in chairs while our plane got delayed because of the crazy Ireland wind.

But don't worry, because we totally got there. Our first order of business we finding our hostel, the Abraham House, which was a lot easier to do this time because we had the foresight to bring a map with us. Maps really do help, by the way. After that we hopped on the bus to go see Jekyll and Hyde the musical, which we bought tickets to online before. Of course, we totally took the bus like twice as far as we were supposed to so we got off at some random place and had to walk towards where we imagined the theater to be, because we had driven off the map. It really didn't take that long though; mostly it was just funny. Jekyll and Hyde was incredible, despite the fact that we were pretty much sitting in the pit (where the instruments are, in case you didn't know). We did get the added benefit of making friends with the base player and the percussion section, though. They were nice. And the actual play was fabulous, and the music was amazing. All of the people had perfect voices. The play was also a little scary before we walked back through Dublin to the hostel (we decided not to attempt the busses again). Walking turned out to be a great idea because we were able to see a good amount of the city, which I loved. It turns out that unlike all the little cities in England, Dublin actually has a night life too so it was fun. Also, we discovered that the map was definitely not made to scale, so while it looked like the theater was 20 miles away, it was only like 20 minutes.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we boarded and got off of the plane we got to actually walk on the tarmac. Awesome.

And just to let you know there were 8 of us in the group, and we were travelling on our own. And we did a fabulous job of planning everything, if I might say so myself.

So after a night of really cold sleep (the window wouldn't close! I slept with my coat over my face! I'm sure you should pity me) we woke up early (even when we're on our own we wake up early. lame.) and walked to the bus stop where we were picked up for the Wild Wicklow Tour! Ok, I am definitely someone who is very skeptical of all things touristy, so my first impression of the trip was that it was probably just a way to suck money out of tourists and that it would be lame. But I was very wrong, because it was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. Our coach driver was a fantastic Irish guy who looked like he prbably hadn't been out of college too long, and he was really funny. On the way out of Dublin he told us all about the history of the city and drove us past some of the sites, like U2's recording studio and whatnot and told us a bunch of funny local stories and nicknames for places. In addition to being entertaining it was great because I learned a lot more about Irish history, so it really made me appreaciate the whole trip a lot more. Like did you know that in the 1980's Ireland was considered a third country? Ireland definitely has a really rough history, and you can tell that they have come a long way. Anyways, back to the tour. So our first stop on the tour was the coast, where we got to get out and walk around and it was gorgeous. As usual we took pictures. So, crazy detail, there were tons of old people swimming in the freezing cold Irish Sea. I touched it, but had absolutely no desire to immerse myself in it despite the fact that it was really pretty. Other highlights of the day trip (the bus tour was from 9 to 5) include stopping at the top of the hill/mountain to look at Guiness lake where we did not have whiskey (everyone else did. I think 90% of the past times in Ireland involve whiskey), stopping in a little town where we ate lunch on rocks next to the water, going to the bog, exploring the ruins of a monestary and such. Once again we were so lucky because the weather was great. It wasn't warm or anything, but it was sunny and there was no rain involved. Apparently this is quite the feat because it rains 275 days a year in Wicklow on average.

That night we explored Dublin and just walked around and stuff. We wanted to go somewhere and get an authentic Irish meal, but we totally ended up going to 50's style American diner. At first I thought that was kind of lame sicne we were in Ireland, but once we walked in I immediately changed my mind. We've been gone for almost two months now, and I LOVE Europe but a taste of home felt a lot better than I realized it would. Especially after being sick this past week and realizing that all of my comfort foods weren't here. For example, there is no chicken noodle soup in England anywhere. Or jello. And KFC doesn't have mashed potatoes, which I think is a crime. So my first actual meal after being sick ended up being a cheeseburger and oreo milkshake while listening to 50's music. It was perfect. Then we walked around more before going back to the hostel.

The next day was all Dublin. We all got up early and hit the streets, where the weather had spontaneously decided to be ridiculous. As in it was pouring and the wind was trying to blow us off the sidewalk. Nevertheless we decided to walk around and see all the sights in London. It was fantastic. We ran around on the streets to all of the random old sights, where we would quickly drop the umbrellas and smile. Ashley was a group photographer and managed to take group shots of all of us, with her in it, on all occasions. We have us and the old Dublin walls, us and St. Patrick's, us and Chrsit Church... It was really funny. Ashley and Dassily decided to pull out their umbrellas because it was pouring, but me and Talyn were too lazy, despite the fact that we were carrying our umbrellas in our backpacks the entire time. It was a really good call on our part though, because even though we were soaked we had the opportunity to laugh at Ashley and Dassily wrestle with their umbrellas, which were flipping inside out every two seconds. I'm pretty sure umbrellas go to Dublin to die. It was much better to embrace the wet, because you were going to get wet anyways. So we wandered around and then met up with Linsday and Megan, who had gone and paid to see the Book of Kells and then we walked to Kilmainham Gaol (jail spelled the European way). Walking there was an adventure, because once again the map was not to scale. The fact that it was so far away really shouldn't have been that big of a surprise, because it's not like people want jails right in the middle of your city. Anyways when we finally made it there, soaking wet, and it was really cool. The whole tour was really interesting. The jail was built in the late 1700's and was in operation until the 1920's and is intertwined with a lot of Irish history because it was used during a lot of their wars for ?Independence and stuff. There were a lot of political prisoners there, and exectutions and stuff. And it just looked really looked and sounded creepy. But that was really cool. Then we went to the Irish museum of archeology, where we got to see the Bog Bodies, which are crazy. Apparently back when the Vikings came or something they would bury bodies three feet deep in the bog (we learned this on the bus tour) because they believed it would keep their enemies souls from being able to go to heaven, but what it actually did was preserve the bodies perfectly until they were found recently. They still have skin and everything. So we looked at them. It was really weird because you could even see facial expressions. So we did that and then we just hit up a couple of souvenir stores before heading back to the bus to get to the airport. At the airport our plane was once again delayed, this time for an hour and a half. I can't really blame them though because the wind was insane.

So I think that's everything that happened, but it probably isn't. But I'm tired so that's all your getting.

Just to let you know, today was nice. Since I didn't leave the center at all this week I needed to go to three galleries today for humanities, so I went to all of these places and then walked aimlessly around London just because I could. I loved being in Ireland, but it is always so nice to be back in London. And the center bed always seems a thousand times better after being in the hostels.

Um, that's the end. Cheers.

Wait, I have a question. When exactly am I supposed to write papers when we have something going on every single day this week? Any volunteers to do it for me?

Phase One: the Tube. Notice how we're still nice and clean.

Waiting to check in at Gatwick

The Beauteous Irish Coast

Us on the CoastA Sample of the Irish RoadsMountains and Smiling PeopleLunch. It was a delicious Apple.

We're just so cool.

We're all about the ruined cities.Prettyness.

The creepy hallways.

We're hardened criminals. Ok, maybe I'm very soft.

Outside the Jail

So the McFlurry's are better in Ireland than England, but not quite as good as in the states.

Enjoying life at the Dublin airport and attempting to be studious.

We Retake Croft Castle

2008-10-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry to keep you guys waiting for this blog update. I know that you just sit by your computer hitting the refresh button hoping that I've written something new. But no more worries, it's here!

So, last week started out with a midterm and a paper. Yay! I'm sure that you guys want all of the horrific details about that, but I'm afraid I'm going to pass over it. On a more fun note, me and Lindsay were invited to a surprise birthday party in Peckham for one of the guys in our ward (there are a ton of single adults in our ward. It's pretty fantastic). It was Peter Pan themed, so we attempted to dress us but since we only could bring like 5 shirts here we didn't have much to work with. We tried for Lost Boys, but I'm not sure how that worked out. But it was fun anyways and now we have some more friends, which is always a good thing. We even got to play some games and eat cake.

Thursday we started our brief vacation from the real world (aka more tests and papers) with a day trip to Stratford-on-Avon. In Stratford you can meet all of your Shakespeare needs for an entire year between visiting old houses, seeing plays, and eating at places like William Shakes (all shakes all the time). Our program started out the day late by leaving at noon (don't get too excited, we didn't actually get to sleep in. Instead we had a test at 9 in the classroom) and our first stop was Anne Hathaway's cottage (Shakespeare's wife, not the actress in Princess Diaries) where we got to walk through the old Tudor house. We learned various things, like how thatchers (people who make the straw roofs) are apparently very rich and all drive Porsche's. We learned stuff about Shakespeare too, but it didn't involve nice cars, although apparently the Hathaway's were pretty well to do in their time. Then we advanced to Shakespeare's birthplace, where we got to see more Shakespeare stuff and walk where he did and all of that. I have to admit that it was cute and charming during the day, but when we walked past it at night it looked a lot like one of those buildings that should be condemned. But it is like 400 years old, so I guess that's to be expected. We had some time to kill after the birth place, so we got to wander around Statford, which is a really cute town. We ate fish and chips and went into a cool used book store and just wandered around aimlessly until it was time for the show. Oh yes, we went to a show. How could you leave Stratford-on-Avon without seeing some quality Shakespeare performed. And it was really good. Take into consideration the fact that I don't really even like Shakespeare, and that should tell you that it was excellent. We got to see Love's Labor Lost, and it was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, which is supposed to be like the very best. Berowne (the main guy in this production) was played by David Tennant, who is supposed to be the up and coming star of theater (he was also Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and stuff) and was absolutely fabulous. He plays Hamlet for the company as well, and they're going to be traveling to London in December... Tickets are selling at 300 pounds, but we think it might be worth standing (which is 5 pounds) because he was just that good. So that was fun.

Right after the play came the epic moment of splitting off from the group for good. This past weekend we didn't have class on Friday, so the professors left it open for us to travel in small groups as we wanted. To save time and money Me, Ashley, Annie and Sam decided to just stay overnight at a hostel in Stratford before beginning our adventures. So that was a defining moment when we walked away from everyone else in the program and hopped in a taxi by ourselves in a foreign country for the first time. Don't worry, we totally made it to the hostel alive. And we even had the room all to ourselves, which was a bonus.

The next day is when the action started. Let me begin by saying that the trains officially hate us. We had it all nice and planned out before, had our tickets, got to the station on time and everything. It was after the train started that the problems started. Apparently some train decided that it would be fun to get itself stuck on the track we needed to go on. Long story short, a ride that should have gotten us to Leominster at noon got us there at three, which was twice as long as it should have been. The train even terminated before it was supposed to so the station hired a coach for to take everybody to the station we were supposed to be at, where we arrived minutes late to miss the last train to leave for Leominster in an hour. We spent a lot of quality time on trains and in stations. Nevertheless we did ultimately prevail and made it to Leominster, and eventually we found a taxi (which is apparently just locals doing it for some extra cash because the town is TINY) to get us to Croft Castle.

That's right, Croft Castle. You may have been wondering why we were going through all of this trouble to go to a tiny place you've never heard of and that would be why. It's never too far to go to your own castle. I've wanted to go there forever, since my dad told me that the knight who was given the castle was our great times a thousand grandpa or something. So it was totally awesome to go there and be able to drag a couple of friends with me. It was absolutely gorgeous. Croft Castle is just barely on the border of Wales, and has the most beautiful view of the surrounding farm lands. It was especially beautiful since it was such a perfect autumn day. We got to take a tour of the castle after hearing a brief history, and then we just walked the grounds and stuff. It was fun because there was even a family history chart in there, even though I have no idea where we fit in. The whole experience was just a lot of fun. They had dress up in one of the rooms in the castle, and a bookstore in the stables, and tons and tons of gardens. We might not have been there as long as we would have liked, but it was still great.

Our next stop was Birmingham, where we stayed for the night. You might wonder why we chose Birmingham, and the reason would be purely because it was convenient. It turned out to be a ton of fun though. We got in from the train station after all of the stores closed (I swear everything in England closes so early!) so we decided to entertain ourselves at the movie theater, where we saw Eagle Eye. In case you're wondering, it was good. And perfect after an exhausting day filled with train stations. When that got out we had the fun task of locating our hostel in the dark in a city we've never been to, which we actually did very well considering the fact that none of us remembered to bring a map.

The hostel was probably the most exciting one I've been to so far, since all the walls were painted different bright colors. It was definitely my kind of place. Unfortunately it was probably my worst night of sleep since I've been here thanks to a dance party down the street that lasted past 5 AM. Good times. We started out the day with the plan of going to the Cadbury chocolate factory, where I would have bought Tiffany a souvenir, but once again the trains failed us. So we opted for plan B, which actually turned out great. We got to wander around the Bull Ring, which is a really nice outdoor shopping center and the other surrounding parts of Birmingham while enjoying the fabulous weather. They even had an open air market right there. The best was when we got to eat lunch outside at Nando's, that just happened to be right where a music competition called the Festibull was taking starting that day. Apparently four bands play a show everyday, and then people go online to vote who they like the best. The band we watched was the amateurs, and they were perfect with my tasty food.

After the show ended we decided it would probably be a good idea to head over to our highlight of the day, the FOOTBALL GAME! Yep. We got to go to a professional football game. When we were brainstorming things to do on the trip we discovered that there just happened to be a home game for Aston Villa (!) the day that we were there. So we immediately ordered tickets online. It was the best idea we had. From the beginning we knew it would be good-- the tickets came with a note saying that these were tickets for Aston Villa fans only, and that anyone else would be refused at the door. We were very concerned that we would accidentally wear the wrong colors and get beat up. Our seats were definitely only like three rows from the top of the stadium, but I'm sure that just made it so we could see the spread of the field better or something. The best part was watching the fans. All I can say is that they were all very British and that they train them young. They had all sorts of songs that they would break out into (that sounded remarkably like drinking songs) at various times. My favorite would have to have been "The referee's a wanker". It was also funny because everyone (I mean everyone) would do the exact same thing at the same time. No one scored in the first half, and as we progressed through the second half the atmosphere kept getting more and more intense. There was a lot of swearing coming from the row behind me. If the other team had scored a goal I honestly don't know what would have happened. The weirdest thing to me though was the end. The game was so intense because it was still tied at zero, and then all of a sudden the ball went out of bounds and everyone just stood up and left. It was like nothing had even happened. Not one person even said, "well that's too bad." Nope. They were just done. I, however, was sad that Aston Villa didn't win, because they totally should have.

Once that was abruptly over we caught a train back home, where nothing too exciting happened other than the fact that they charged us an arm and a leg to retreat to London. We sulked about how much money it cost while we were on the train and decided to rebel against doing homework.

Sunday night I proceeded to get sick, which I will kindly spare you the details of. Let's just say that I wouldn't recommend it.

Yesterday after a lot of sleeping and such I managed to put myself together enough to go to Swan Lake, which I most definitely did not want to miss. And it was totally worth it. I'd have to say that the royal opera house is probably the swankiest place I have ever been. It looked like it came straight out of a movie. And the ballet was incredible. They were all so graceful and made it look so easy, even though it most definitely is not. The whole production was just beautiful, and there was a full orchestra and everything. I'd go again in a second.

This morning was far less exciting when I got to take a humanities test. And tomorrow I have a paper due for British Studies that I am currently not writing. That could be a problem.

Miss you all!

Oh, and the descriptions for the pictures are on top this time because the internet hates me.

Anne Hathaway's Place

We may have got distracted by the apples there
Shakespeare's HouseWe tried like a thousand times to get a jumping picture in front of Shakespeare's. This was the creepiest.

We have gotten really bored of normal poses

The first view of Croft Castle

They totally had dress up. We had to do it.

The castle again...

More Apples!

Mmm... water in a barrell.

The group photo

Street in Birmingham

The concert in Birmingham from where we're eating

Aston Villa stadium!I swear there is a soccer field behind us.The crowd passed this around and it was cool.We tried to look Swan-like. It didn't work.I mailed my ballot today! Yay!

Yesterday

2008-10-12T11:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, so maybe it wasn't "yesterday", but "the day after the day after yesterday" isn't the name of a Beatles song. So I had to make do.

For those of you who don't know (and you all should know because you memorize my blog daily) I just got back from our four day trip to the North. I'll give you the run-down.

Departure from London-- We left at 7:00 in the morning. This means that we had to finish breakfast by 6:30. This was my least favorite part of the trip by far.

Quarry Bank Mill-- Our first stop of the day was just outside of Manchester in Cheshire. It used to be a cotton mill, but now it's a museum. It was pretty cool to visit though because they had working machines and stuff in there so you could get a little but of a feel for what it would have felt like to work in there. Let's just say that I wouldn't be volunteering for it.

Port Sunlight-- It's right outside of Liverpool. It could even be part of it. We stopped there to go to the Lady Lever Art Gallery. I thought it was funny because there was all this amazing artwork there and we totally spent a lot of our time in the basement coloring pictures of the famous artwork upstairs. Just because we're in college doesn't mean that we don't want to color!

Liverpool!-- We crashed in Liverpool for the first night. We got there when everything was closing, so we mostly wandered the docks and took lots of pictures. Pretty much all of them involved the Beatles in one form or another, like jumping next to the river while listening to the Beatles, with Beatles signs, with an orange submarine... You get the idea. While we were wandering the docks we were offered tickets by someone on the street. Of course we had no idea what they were for. And I was pretty sure that they were speaking another language (they weren't). But it turns out that there was an Oasis concert right where we were that night to kick off their new CD or something. So that was almost exciting.

Since we didn't blindly buy tickets for the concert we ended up going across the street to this giant new mall type place where we went in a bunch of stores but didn't spend any money. Which was probably a good thing, since I definitely spent a good amount of money the next day... We ended up having to hide in McDonald's from the rain (I know, a real cultural experience) before we retreated to the hostel where we did nothing. Cities in England shut down way too early. I think all of the stores closed at like 8. Luckily they open up again in the morning, so first thing we went and hit up the Beatles gift shop, where I spent the bulk of my money on a fabulous bag. Yes, it was so worth it.

Then we took more pictures before we all met up at the Maritime Museum. All of the Beatles stuff was cool, but this was definitely the best part. The real reason we went to Liverpool (no, we didn't just go there for the Beatles) was because the ports there used to be the major place for emigration to the states in the UK and Scandinavia, so pretty much all of us had ancestors who would have passed through there before leaving for America. I have to admit it was another one of those things that I couldn't really process, but I tried to imagine standing where they would have and looking out at the ocean knowing that you were going someplace completely foreign and that you were never coming back. I think they said that 100's of thousands of LDS emigrants passed through those ports alone. The church actually has a monument there, so we took a moment to read about people's experiences with the journey and sing a song. That was the best part of the trip. Then we actually went into the museum, which was pretty cool although I have to admit that it wasn't quite as cool as I had hoped. I think that I was imagining it to be more like Ellis Island or something. But they did have models of a bunch of the ships that had left and there was a life size model that you got to walk through and stuff. Somehow I don't feel as bad about my long plane ride to get over here now.

After our moment of reflection we resumed being normal tourists and decided to head out in search of the famous Cavern, where the Beatles and tons of other famous bands performed. We totally found it and proceeded to take pictures of it. Then we ran back to the hostel to make sure we didn't miss the bus. That wouldn't have been good.

Preston-- On the way to the Lake District we stopped in Preston, because when the first missionaries came to England way back at the beginning of church history this is where they came. We got to go see the Preston Temple, which of course was gorgeous. It was actually funny because there was a group of missionaries there taking a group photo at the same time, and one of the girls in our group totally knew one of the missionaries from school. We were only there for a little bit, and then we had a couple hour tour of Preston, which was pretty cool. It's definitely a very nice place. Then we all packed onto the bus and we were off again. In case your guys haven't picked up on this, these trips are all jam packed with things to do and see. By the end of the day we're so exhausted that we don't even care that we have to sleep in questionable hostel beds.

The Lake District-- This place seriously doesn't even look real. I'll include a picture of our view from the hostel. We stayed at the hostel in Ambleside for two nights, so we got to see lots of the Lake District. We got in pretty late again, so we went on a walk into town. It was completely dark so we didn't really see anything. When we went back into town the next day I couldn't even tell I was in the same place. It's a really cute little town. They have a bunch of little shops and stuff. The best part of being in the Lake District was the scenery hands down. It's just so dramatic and green and perfect. There's also a ton of sheep everywhere. It looks like it came straight out of a book.

The first morning we got up early (no sleep allowed in England) and hiked for a couple hours up to Dove Cottage, which is where Wordsworth lived with his sister and wife for some odd years and wrote lots o' poetry. The hike was fabulous. We've really been lucking out on the weather. Apparently it rains like 90% of the time in the Lake District, but it didn't rain at all while we were there unless you count the storm (complete with severe weather warnings) that rolled in right when we rolled out. Oh, other funny bit of luck. Apparently we accidentally went to Wordsworth's place on national poetry day, so the BBC was there and they taped one of our professors and one of the girls reciting poetry. Later we ran into our BBC friends again the nest day at the Bronte's house... I'm pretty sure that they're stalking us.

After Dove Cottage we took the coach up to Hilltop, where Beatrix Potter lived. It was way cute and they had all sorts of Peter Rabbit stuff. It was also really interesting to learn more about her. She used the money she made from the books to buy 14 farms in the Lake District to preserve the land and keep it from being developed. When she died she left all of it to the National Trust, and they kept it just the way she left it. Pretty sweet stuff.

After Hilltop we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted to, so naturally we spent the majority of our time eating and buying candy. We also took a cruise on lake Windermere (the gorgeous one directly in front of the hostel).

Haworth-- one of the ways that we broke u pour long trek back home to London (it's like a five hour drive) was to stop in Haworth, where the Bronte sisters lived. This might have been my favorite little town so far. Everywhere was picturesque. As an example I will include a picture of where we went to the restroom below. I really wish we had more time here. Sadly we were on a tight schedule, so all we had time for was eating at a cute little place after visiting the parsonage where the Bronte's lived. I would have rather looked around the town more...

Chatsworth-- By this point we were running behind, so this was a crazy fast tour of another ridiculously massive building. This house is in the new movie the Duchess. It was also where Mr. Darcy lived in the new Pride and Prejudice. I can sum it up in one word-- big. Pretty would also be an acceptable answer.

Home!-- Four days later we made it back to the centre in one piece, complete with lots of new souvenirs and no energy.

Hampstead Heath-- So this wasn't part of the trip, but I'm sneaking it in here anyways. We went there yesterday when the weather was absolutely perfect (his was the same day Provo got 6 inches of snow. Oh yes). Hampstead is technically part of London, but it feels more like a New England town. We got the most delicious apples on the side of the street that I have ever had. The heath also offers fantastic views of the whole city since it sits higher than central London. We had a wondrous day of wandering the heath, even though we got incredibly lost after we got pointed in the wrong direction.

That's it for now. These nest couple of days I will be sentenced to doing nothing but homework, since I haven't done any for awhile and I totally have a paper, a midterm, and a bunch of other thrilling assignments to do this week. You should totally appreciate this because writing this has taken me like four hours, and I haven't even added the pictures yet. So you should leave me a comment to let me know that I'm not wasting my time when I should be doing homework, I'm sure. It's really easy. All you do is click on the comments link at the bottom of this entry and then type a little love note...

Pictorials of my Adventures in the North:

I know you can't tell, but this is us at the Mill

One of my favorite pasttimes on the bus is eating.
Coloring in the basement of a famous art galleryLiverpool!
Liverpool Docks! At night!

We didn't even have to leave the hostel for Beatles photo ops

We didn't actually go in the museum, but we took a ton of pictures outside!

The monument where the emigrants left

Liverpool Docks! In the Daytime!

Ready to emigrate to New York

We started a band in honor of the Cavern

Preston Temple. Note the missionary group picture in the back.

The view from the hostel of Windermere

On the hike

Dove Cottage

Reading Beatrix Potter at Hill Top (I totally stole Annie's book)

Docks not in Liverpool

A Sample of the View

Everyone has to take a touristy phone booth picture, so I figured I'd take mine here

This is where the bathroom was

Peace out. I'm going to try and catch up on some of my sleep.

Oxford Rocks Our Socks

2008-10-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends! So this past wednesday I went to Oxford. It was grand. I'll just say this much-- we've all decided to transfer.

Ok, so we actually didn't go to Oxford first. I'm getting ahead of myself. First, we went to Blenheim Palace. I can't describe how massive and intricate it is. Actually I can. It's intricately decorated and massive. We walked around the grounds first, which are so large that you have to take a train to get to part of it. We of course decided to go to the secret garden, even though I'm not convinced that it can be all that secret since it's on the map. The secret garden was a lot more natural looking than the other gardens, but the rest of it was perfectly groomed. There were even hedges shaped like ducks. The inside of the palace was amazing, although it didn't seem at all like a house that someone would grow up in. Fun fact of the day: Winston Churchill was born there, but he didn't live there. I think that overall I liked Blenheim Palace better than Buckingham Palace. But it's a close call.

Then they let us loose on Oxford. Me and a group of other girls decided to visit Magdalene College, which was founded in like 1428. One of the cool things about Oxford is that the University is actually made up of a ton of colleges, that came together in 1242. So there isn't really a central campus; it's just a city with a bunch of colleges in it. The college we went to was really cool. All of the buildings are ancient, but they're still alive with all the students. After walking ancient halls, and taking tons of pictures as usual, I succeeded in being persistent (annoying) enough to convince everyone to go punting with me. For those of you who don't know, punting is being on a boat (picture Venice or something) and you move by using a long stick to push you in shallower waters. It seems to be a popular thing to do at old smart schools like Oxford and Cambridge. So we decided to go. We also decided that it would be a good idea to pay a little extra for someone to do the punting for us. It turns out it was a good call, because one of the other girls from the program totally fell in. Plus, one of the best parts was our guide. His name was Humphrey. He grew up in Oxford, was our age, and I'm pretty sure he was also a little intimidated by us since we were so crazy and loud. We had a lot of fun. After our punting fun we decided to attack the local bookstores and fulfill our tourist duty of buying Oxford stuff. See picture below. Then we let our stomaches guide us to a local tavern for some food. More specifically we were guided to The Eagle and Child, where authors including C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkein would meet and dicuss ideas and stuff. Naturally we ate in the exact spot they used to. The food was even good. After our stomaches were satisfied our group met up to go to Evensong at Christ Church. It was very cool. Their voices were so pure.
Other things we did in the past week (that I can remember at the moment)

The Tower of London-- Very fun. The beefeaters give great tours. They even threaten danger at every step. I still can't get over the fact that these are the actual places where events like the beheading of three queens took place. We got to go up in the tower where the two princes were said to be murdered and walk up the stairs that their murderer would have. A little creepy. In the tower that they kept most of the prisoners you could see people's etchings that they made on the wall in their last days. It was kind of crazy.
Portobello Road-- Yes, we went again. And this time we even made it farther! I swear it's not possible to look at everything in one day.
Conference-- for General Conference we just hooked up a laptop to the projector in the classroom and watched it online. It was kind of weird because with the time difference it was from 5-7 and 9-11 at night. But luckily conference is great at any time.
St. Bartholomew's-- Since we didn't have church earlier in the morning we decided that it would be cool to go see a Anglican (church of England) service in one of the sweet old London churches so we went back to St. Bart's the great. It was really interesting to see the service. There is definitely a lot of tradition in it. Since the church was built in 1123 it was kind of cool to think that people have been going to church there doing the same thing forever. It was also fun because there was a photographer there from the National Geographic. If you're flipping through the pages of the next issue and see some people looking desperately confused at the schedule of the service that would be us. Another fun fact-- they're shooting a feature film there with Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. or something this week. Sherlock Holmes! Yay.

Ok, more probably happened but I'm really tired and we're leaving for four days in the morning to go on a trip to the North (Liverpool, the Lake District, etc.) at SEVEN. It's already 11:30...

Pictures:

Finding the not-so-secret garden

See? It's huge!

Us and our buddy Humphrey back from Punting

We're official Oxford tourists now! They should totally accept us.

Food for talented writers, I'm sure

Walking is Good for Me

2008-09-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

Today was beautiful, partly because I didn't have much going on. I finally got mostly caught up on my homework, so after I finished my history class I decided to go to the Wallace Collection (for humanities) by myself. I've decided that I absolutely love going to art galleries by myself, because then I can just do everything at my own pace. Plus, we're all together 24/7 so occasionally being alone is nice. At first I totally went the wrong direction from the tube stop, but that was actually great because the area was a lot of fun to be in. Now I have another street to add to my list of 20 places to go shopping in the near future... After I finished looking at the paintings I decided to be a little adventurous and find my way home by walking. It only took like 45 minutes with a couple distractions and it was fantastic. The tube is great, but sometimes I feel like we miss a lot of London in between tube stops. So the moral of the story is: Walk. It's good for you.

The run-down:

Westminster Abbey-- So, last time I wrote I somehow managed to forget that I went to the massive Westminster Abbey. It's even bigger then I imagined. There are seriously so many people buried in there, it would take weeks to read look at everything. I found a Croft buried in there and I decided that we're related, but it was all in Latin so I have no idea what it said. We also got to see cool people other than the obvious kings and queens, like William Wilberforce and William Pitt. Did I mention that it's huge? I do have to admit, I still think the idea of having a church be an expensive tourist spot and a sanctuary at the same time seems a little contradictory. Like, how do the people who are buried under where they put the food cart feel?
Bach-- We had to go to a Baroque concert for humanities, so me and a couple other girls went to a Bach concert at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The music was performed great, but I have to admit Baroque isn't exactly the type of music I usually listen to in my free time. As usual we got the cheapest seats, which meant that we couldn't even see the performers, but there was this really captivating window at the end of the cathedral that we decided looked exactly like a vortex from some sci-fi movie. I couldn't stop staring at it. Between the Baroque music and everything in the church looking exactly like it would have in during the baroque period there were a couple times that I was convinced we had all been transported back in time.
Homework-- I put off that second paper forever, but in the end I did it. I'm sure you were worried about that.
St. Bartholomew's the Great-- This is an amazing old church tucked away in London. It's probably the oldest church in London, and was built in 1123. It definitely looks old, but in a very beautiful way. It's crazy how it's been here so long but it doesn't look like it will ever fall down anytime soon. Even though it was so old it still had the feeling of being very much alive. There were even white flowers around the entrance for a wedding, and people chilling in the courtyard our front.
the Banquet Hall-- we went there. It's the last remaining part of Whitehall or something like that. We looked for the Palladian architectural influence (hint: it's very symmetrical and has classical influence. If you care, that is). More interestingly right out front is where Parliament beheaded King Charles numero uno. It might just be me, but it seems like some famous person died at like every historic place in England.
Ivanov-- It's a play by Anton Chekov, and it was performed perfectly. Also, Ivanov was played by Kenneth Branagh, who was totally Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter. There were other people too, and it bugged me the whole time trying to figure out who they were.
Running-- I've finally gotten down a good schedule for running almost every day. I absolutely love running here because since we live right across the street from Kennsington Gardens and Hyde Park I get to run there everyday and it is the best run route ever. There's a palace, and a lake, and flowers, and fountains, and the Peter Pan statue... It doesn't get any better.
County Walk-- Along with the walking theme we got to go on a 6 or 7 mile country hike/walk out in Kent on Saturday. The countryside, like everything else here, was just stunning. One of the local church leaders, President Chiddick, and a couple of his brothers led us on the fabulous walk. We went through fields and churches and castles and whatever else happened to be along the way. It was funny though because it seemed like they were always telling us we were in danger of being hit by something, whether it was cars, or trains, or flying golf balls. Who knew a country walk was so dangerous?
Gelato-- I swear we eat gelato like every night. I've been twice in the past three days. And I really want some right now.
Hyde Park Walk-- We finally decided to do the official walk for class on Sunday because the weather was just PERFECT. It was fun going on a nice Sunday because there was just so much activity going on, including speaker's corner. It was pretty sweet to go there while people were debating since it played such a huge part in church history. It was also really interesting to just hear what they were talking about, and how they're try to get people in. Mostly they were all talking about politics and religion. There was even an English guy debating McCain vs. Obama. Oh man, you have no idea how much they love Obama here. He's everywhere. But back to the walk. It was fun.
Buckingham Palace-- Yesterday was the last day that the state rooms were open, so we figured we should probably get on that. It was huge and ridiculously fancy, like all of the other old buildings here. I seriously do not understand how anyone could ever live in a palace. They had the tables set up like they would be for a banquet. Everything was so perfectly lined up. Monk would definitely have appreciated their work.
Notting Hill-- Since we pretty much live in Notting Hill we decided that we should watch the movie Notting Hill. And of course we got some gelato to eat with it.

The Illustrations (for those of you who don't read):

The vortex. This picture doesn't do it justice.

The Banquet Hall. They had banquets there, go figure.

On our walk we ate lunch in the remains of a Norman Castle

The beautiful countryside

We live in the most awesome place ever. They have an open air art show every Sunday.

It's all serious business at Buckingham Palace.

Ok, maybe not.

We Actually Do Homework

2008-09-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be surprised to learn that we actually do study during study abroad programs. If you're looking for an exciting new entry, I'm afraid that all of the school work has finally caught up to us and we suddenly got very boring. Up until now we've only been doing just enough to get by, but then all of a sudden this week snuck up on us and we had four WHOLE days of class and two papers due! Quite tragic, I know. Actually it's kind of funny because we complained a ton about having four days of class in a row. I would have killed for a four day week back in Provo.

I guess I should tell you a little bit about classes. I haven't really talked about it before because it's not nearly as exciting as the other things we've been doing, but I don't have anything else to talk about this time. So, while we are enjoying our lives in London we are actually still full time students at BYU, which means that we have to take 12 credits.

The Classes I'm Taking:

Humanities 202 Honors-- I have to admit, it's pretty sweet to take this in London because we actually get to see stuff instead of just looking at pictures.
English 300-- All mystery novels, all the time. Enough said.
Walks of London-- We walk around London. A lot.
Religion 350R-- We learn about the history of the Church in Britain and stuff. It's pretty cool.
European Studies 336R-- British economic and social history. It's really interesting.

A fun note to go along with studying-- We have a library in the center and tables and such, but they are all on the first floor. I live on the fourth floor (AKA the fifth in America). I also am sick and tired of climbing stairs. My legs are burning as I speak. We don't have desks in our room, so that means that my bed doubles as a table and I kneel by the side of it to do my homework. I thought I was being all smart when I carefully selected a bunk on the bottom since I was tired of having to climb onto my raised bed last semester, but I didn't realize that this bunk is not high enough for you to be able to sit on... So now I spend all of my time on the floor. I would have to say that I don't really recommend writing papers on your knees.

Oooh, we did get to do one fun thing since we got back from Cornwall. On monday we got to go on a our of the Globe. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's basically a theater that has been recreated to be as much like Shakespeare's globe back in the day as possible. It's in almost the exact same place and has only been open for the past 11 years, so it's still a pretty new thing. I remember learning about it in 7th grade when we studied Shakespeare in Mrs. Patrick's class. I never really thought I'd actually be able to go there. It's definitely the place to go and see Shakespeare performed. You can even get rained on since it's an open air theater. Today we got to see a Midsummer Night's Dream there. It was pretty much amazing as far as Shakespeare goes. We got to be the "groundlings," meaning that we stood the whole time. It only costs five pounds for a groundling ticket though and you get to be right up front with the actors. The performance is even good enough that you don't realize that your legs are still burning from going up too many stairs in one day. Sitting down is for lazy people.

I also went shopping. That always makes things better. There's this store called Primark that's amazing. The closest thing to it I can think of if Forever 21 because it just has so much stuff and it's all really cute and cheap, but it's way bigger. It's two stories and has more stuff you could ever look at. It even has home goods. And it's only two tube stops away...

That's pretty much it. Tomorrow we have more class. We do get to go to listen to a panel of current mystery novel authors at the Waterstonen's at Picadilly circus though, so that should be pretty cool. I'll probably go to a baroque concert at St. Martin's in the Fields for Humanities tomorrow night as well. Good stuff. Life never really gets bad here. Even when you procrastinate papers...

Us at the Globe during the tour

Me being studius with Arthur Conan Doyle

My bed/desk on one of its better days

My Toes Touch the Atlantic

2008-09-20T09:41:00.001-07:00

There have been so many times that I just can't believe that I'm actually here, and this trip was full of them. The whole trip west was just incredible. We went to Cornwall for three days and hit up Penzance, Exeter, and Lyme Regis. They were basically all super sweet coastal towns. We were really lucky too, because the whole time we were there the skies were perfect and blue, which never happens in England.

We'll do bullets again because I'm lazy.

the Bus-- We were in it forever. There were some good moments though, like when we sang Beatles songs in the English countryside and watched movies and saw all the places we had just been.
Stourhead Estate-- This was the first place we went to, and honestly no pictures or words could do the beauty of this place justice. I took pictures of the views and it seriously looked like someone had drawn the buildings on a piece of cardboard and stuck it in between the trees. We decided to take pictures every two steps anyways though. Since I'm in this program with a ton of English majors they got really excited about the fact that Pride and Prejudice was filmed there and acted out a bunch of scenes from the movie, which was pretty entertaining.
Hardy Country-- Again since I'm in this program with a ton of English majors, we went to the cottage that Thomas Hardy grew up in. It was seriously tiny. The roof was only a few inches from the top of my head, and my feet were twice as long as the stair steps allowed for. It was pretty cute though, and it was dun because we had to walk down a little road to get to it. The garden out front was beautiful and home to a bunch of bees. As a note to Mr. Duncan, I was very glad that we read Return of the Native so I could actually appreciate being there.
The YMCA-- Our first hostel experience of the semester was at the YMCA in Penzance. We pretty much took the place by storm since there are 41 of us. I'm pretty sure that the people who stay there regularly were terrified of us. Ok, maybe not. But we were really loud. After listening through the door to the steel drum band practicing we decided to move our troops out to wander the coast at night. Basically we walked around because everything closed early, but the sea air was nice and refreshing after sitting in the bus forever.
Beach Number One-- After breakfast we packed back into the bus for a short drive to the beach in Penzance. The world decided that it loved us, and we had the first true day of blue sky. The English coast was nothing like I thought it would be. As soon as we came over the rocks and could see the ocean it just glittered. The water was crystal clear, and the sand was cool because it was like a bunch of tiny pieces of shell. It was there that my toes touched the Atlantic ocean for the first time. It's funny, because I always thought that I would do that on the East coast, not in England. I'm pretty sure that we could have spent forever on that beach. Everything was perfect. We decided to go on a little hike up the rocks (barefoot!) to see some more of the coast and of course that was incredible too. We took a thousand pictures every two steps and just enjoyed being there instead of in a classroom.
St. Micheal's Mount-- The whole trip we just went from one beautifully amazing place to another and this was no exception. This place is basically a castle on this island-type thing that you can only walk to during low tide, otherwise you have to take a boat. We took lots of fun castle pictures and saw lots of old stuff. A fun fact, people actually still live there. Could you imagine giving someone directions to your house? I can see it now...
Exeter-- We stayed here the second night so that we wouldn't have to drive as far back to London the last day. We got there just in time for dinner, so they dumped us off at the Quay to scavenge for food. We found this amazing little restraint that had fantastic pizza and an even better view of the river and people kayaking. The whole setup was fabulous. Then we went to the Youth Hostel that was outside of town and did absolutely nothing. A bunch of people decided to be studious for once and read the Moonstone, which is due for class next week. Not exactly epic. In the morning we got to go to Exeter Cathedral though, which was pretty cool. All of these sweet old churches aren't getting old. Well, they are old. But you know what I mean.
Lyme Regis-- More beach! I love the beach. We had a good amount of time to spend there so we did some shopping (I bought a ring from a fossil shop), ate fish and chips, took pictures (of course), and went for a stroll. We had another Jane Austen moment (these English majors find them everywhere in England) when walked on the Cobb because of a scene from Persuasion that we reenacted and documented. The best part was probably when we just at at the end of the Cobb and looked at the Ocean. Somehow almost everyone in the program ended up there including the professors and we just talked and stuff. Somehow the conversation even ended up with the professors quoting Monty Python. I had another one of those moments where I couldn't believe that I was actually there, and I would have been perfectly happy if that moment lasted forever.
Jersey Boys-- OK, so this was totally before we left for the trip, but it still relates because I went and saw it instead of packing. By the way, I packed everything for the trip in just my backpack. I think I deserve some sort of an award.

You guys are really lucky today, because I decided to post about a thousand of the 20 million pictures we took to show you how beautiful it really was.

At Stourhead Estate. They filmed the last Pride and Prejudice here.

This place was so beautiful that all of my other pictures looked fake.

Our bus taking over the tiny little country roads.

The Penzance YMCA (where we spent the night).

My first time in the Atlantic!

This was much better than sitting in class in Provo.

Apparently pirates frequented the Cornish Coast.

Us and the scenic cliff.

Look at how clear the water is!

The Castle on St. Micheal's Mt. You can only walk there when the tide is out.

More castle.

The cute little restaurant we ate at in Exeter.

I Walk Until My Feet Fall Off

2008-09-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

As you may have suspected, we've done a ton since I wrote last time. I swear I've walked more since I've been here than ever before, and I like walking a lot. Also, there are more stairs in London than I have ever seen in my life. My room is on the 4th floor (the 5th floor in America) so I get the priviledge of walking up fifty flights of stairs twenty times a day just in the center. By the time I get to the top my thighs burn like none other. We figure that by the end of the semester we'll all have legs of steel.

Anyways, one of our classes is called the walks of London. It's fantastic because our homework is basically to go out and walk around the city, but it's way intense because these walks are a good two to three hours long and sometimes the directions are a little ambiguous. The adventures are always fun though, and we get to see all sorts of things along the way. On the past couple of walks we did we got to check out a couple of really cool old churches (there are about 5,000 really cool old churches here I've decided. They just keep popping up out of nowhere), play a game of giant chess, see some of the famous sites, and tons of other things. Going on these walks are what I've spent most of my time doing since I last wrote.

Some of the fun non-homework related things I've done:

the BBC Proms-- BBC has a series of concerts (called Proms) during the summer that are really famous, and we were lucky enough to be able to go to the second to last one of the season. We got to hear the BBC Philharmonic play Beethoven's 9th Symphony live with a full choir for only five pounds. We had to stand at the top, but it was totally worth it. It sounded absolutely incredible. I have to admit that I did zone out a little bit though because I was dead tired and they were just oh so soothing...

39 Steps-- Ok, so this was technically homework since we had to write a paper on it, but it was so much fun that I don't care. It's basically the most amazing play I've ever seen (it's also an old Alfred Hitchcock movie). It was a mystery comedy. It doesn't get much better than that! They made fun of the stereotypical spy story and it was fabulous. Go see it.

Portobello Market-- There's this sweet famous market that's just down the street from where I live every Friday and Saturday, so we had to go to it. It was almost impossible to resist spending my money right then. There were all of these amazing little stands and tons and tons of cool old antiques. We might have to go there every weekend.

The Thames Festival-- basically it was a party on the south side of the Thames. Love that place.

Parliament-- We took a tour of the place and it was ridiculous. I don't even know how to describe it. It was designed to be a palace, so the decorations are all intricate and beautiful and old and expensive looking. Then there were all these places that only Lords could sit, and all sorts of crazy things like that. Our tour guide was amazing; I never wanted to leave. When we entered we went into Westminster Hall, which is over 900 years old. So much has happened there that I couldn't even comprehend it. Craziness.
Church-- We went to our new wards for the first time on Sunday, and it was a lot of fun. There are 41 of us in the program, and they split us up into all different wards in the two London stakes so I'm in the ward with three other people from BYU. We're in the Peckham ward, which is on the south side of the Thames. We got really lucky because we can get there really easily on the tube and it doesn't take very long. Some of the other people have to transfer to the train and stuff and it takes them like two hours. Everybody in our ward seems great too; we already met some really nice people. It's also kind of fun because like 80 or 90% of the ward is African. I can't wait to get to know the ward better.
I'm pretty sure that I did other stuff too, but I really just can't think of anything right now. Feel free to use your imagination to fill in the gaps.

It was really funny, because we packed so much into the first few days we got here that by the time we made it to the weekend we were all dead, and suddenly we all got very boring. Luckily staying boring is very hard in London! The trick is trying to find the balance between school and fun. Last week I think we all kind of forgot about the school part, so we're all trying to make up for it now. I guess that means that I should probably do my reading and stuff too...

Things to look forward to-- we're going on a three day trip to the West starting on Wednesday. We haven't actually heard what we'll be doing yet, but I think that we're going to Devon and Cornwall.

Here's some more pictures for those of you who had a hard time paying attention to my rambling (it's late and I'm avoiding doing my homework so the rambling is inevitable).

Me and the beautiful 27 Palace Court.

Me and Parliament.

Me and the Thames.

Me and Tower Bridge.

Miss ya!

Yes, I Am Still Alive

2008-09-10T14:18:00.001-07:00

Hello my lovely friends! Ok, I know that I've been gone for a whole 6ish days and haven't written anything, but it's been crazy. First off, the jet lag is not so much fun. There's a decent amount of things that I can't even remember happening. Second, everything has been a whirlwind since we got here. This is the first time I've actually had more than approximately two swconds to go on the internet. I miss the internet. Scratch that, the things I've been doing are a lot more fun than the internet.

I guess I'll start from the beginning. Getting to the centre turned out to be pretty easy; I met up with a bunch of other girls at Heathrow and we managed to rent a bus that dropped us off at the doorstep of 27 palace court. I can't even describe the amazingness of the centre, I'm pretty sure it's the coolest place I'll ever live. It was made in the Victorian era and all sorts of sweet people have lived here. The area is crazy nice-- it would cost 2,000 to rent a flat for one WEEK. Ya. I'll post a picture so you can enjoy it's fabulousness with me. It's right across the street from Hyde park and next to notting hill and bayswater and all sorts of great things to do like shop and eat (not that I've really had time to do it yet). Week nights are definitely a lot more fun here than in Provo.

Higlights thus far (kind of in order of when I did it):

The Tube = Awesome. You can go anywhere you're heart desires.

The British Museum-- The stereotype may be that museums are boring, but it's totally wrong when it comes to this one. I only went into two rooms in this massive beauty and I saw the rosetta stone (the REAL one), lots o' stuff from the parthenon and a multitude of other greek and roman statues and goodness (granted the British stole it all).

Kings Cross-- I'm not going to lie, it's mostly because of Platform nine and three quarters.

Getting lost-- totally inevitable and really enjoyable

Hyde Park-- did I mention it's right across the street?

Dinner-- The resident directors make gourmet meals for us every night. From scratch. It's the best I'm ever going to eat in college for sure.

The Accents-- It's officially never going to get old.

Wicked-- One word--amazing! It was love. There are so many amazing musicals and plays here. I think we've decided that we have to go to at least one a week.

Stonehenge-- It's incredible. And incredibly windy. But mostly just incredible. Plus, it makes for some super sweet pictures which is always important

Bath-- I loved everything about this place! It just felt good. The roman baths were really cool to go and look at, and all the streets are fun. There's stuff to look at everywhere. One of the most amazing things about London, and England in general, is that there are so many amazing places that have been around forever. There's a piece of history everywhere you look. Also, it's just fun.
Basically, everything-- Admit it, you so wish you were here.

I guess since this is a study abroad program I should do some actual studying (we have to do a ton for classes!), but I'll attach some pictures first so you have something else to do that's more fun than whatever you're supposed to be doing right now.

Me exiting the good old U.S. of A.

One of our not as studious moments in the British Museum

Did I mention that I was accepted to Hogwarts' new university?

Mmmm... good.

Stonehenge being as mysterious as ever

The fabulous and famous Bath

Tune in next time for some more fun! Just think, I did all this is just four days and I'll be here for four months...

The Beginning

2008-08-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends! Due to popular request, I'm going to attempt to have a blog while I'm in London for your enjoyment. I leave on Friday, so hopefully soon after that I'll write something decently entertaining.