Souvenir I want to but can't bring home - British children

Sunday, June 6, 2010

One of the girls who serves with us in the Wandsworth Common ward is sick, so she asked me to teach Primary for her…eek! I’ve never done that before. What’s more, it’s teaching the three years olds. In some respects that’s easier, but I don’t really know what I’m doing. We arrived at church and I went back to the Primary. The first children in were Poppy and Julian, girl and boy respectively. They’re twins and probably the cutest British children ever. Poppy had her teddy with her, which is actually a leopard, but British children refer to all their stuffed animals as teddies. His name was Charlie, but Julian wanted Poppy to call him Deathonater. They had the most adorable British accents and I just wanted to take them home with me! Next came in this adorable little boy name Brian with perfectly parted hair, the cutest little suit, and a “Future Missionary” badge. He knew all the articles of faith from memory and he knew all the answers to the questions. I wanted to take him home too. These three were all about 7 or 8 years old. A couple of cute girls came in a bit later and another boy – all of them were so well behaved! I couldn’t believe it. Especially after what my friends who serve in other wards tell me. I’ve decided that British children singing primary songs is one of the best things in the world.

When it was time for me to teach, I had only two children – Seth and Sophie. Seth speaks in gibberish. You literally can’t understand half the things he says. Luckily his mom is the Primary President so she was there to help translate. Chloe was adorable – she was quiet, but she could make the cutest happy and frowny faces I have ever seen. I taught them about their feelings today. I was supposed to teach for 30 minutes…I only made it to 15 I think…so we spent the other 20 minutes coloring. All in all, not too bad for my first day teaching in Primary…ever. Another girl came in while we were coloring. Her name was Chloe, and she was so cute and British. She pointed at the angry face on her coloring page and said, “he’s cross.” Haha cross! So British! I loved it. I could have done better with the teaching, but it also could have been worse. And I’m so glad I got the opportunity to be in Primary for a day. It was the best. Fast and testimony meeting was really powerful. There was another confirmation for this cute little old lady who was just baptized. I love seeing that. The Spirit was so strong. And the testimonies (since it was Fast Sunday) were so great. There’s a really good spirit about this ward that I absolutely love.

When I got home from church I proceeded to take a two hour nap – it was absolutely lovely. I have so much homework to do…blargh…naps can make me feel a bit guilty, but not on Sundays. They seem perfectly tailored to a Sunday afternoon. Tonight we had a fireside where a man came and talked to us about wartime (WWII) London – it was cool, but it went on a bit too long. Now I’m going to bed. So I can wake up at an insane hour and study for my ridiculous English midterm. I am lacking motivation big time. HELP! I need somebody. HELP! Not just anybody…well, I really need some motivation…goodnight, and good luck J

I think I've been to more famous author's houses than I have friend's houses back home...

Saturday, June 5, 2010

This morning we went rowing on the Serpentine in Hyde Park! It was so much fun! It is so hot here. I am really not used to the humidity. I was dying on the walk there and back. The weather is beautiful. A little too hot for my taste, but beautiful. And rowing on the Serpentine was so fun, though we weren’t very good rowers at all. There were three of us in a boat, two in another boat, and two more in one of those paddle boats you work with your feet. None of us really knew how to row, but we took turns and got better towards the end.

We reenacted the scene from Phantom when he takes her across the underground lake – it will be on facebook soon, I’m sure. I played the Phantom as I rowed. Aubrie was Christine in the back of the boat, looking scared. Classic. It was so much fun.

After the Serpentine we walked over to the Orangery next to Kensington Palace and had tea and crumpets! Well, I had lemonade and a fruit scone…but still! It was so cute! And I felt so British whilst eating. We spent the rest of the afternoon venturing out to Samuel Johnson’s house and Dicken’s house. I’ll be honest and say that both of these sites were rather boring. I liked Dicken’s because I actually enjoy his writing, but I was semi-bored by the exhibits in the house.

Johnson’s was under renovations, so there was basically nothing in the house. Lame. There were, however, outfits to try on. They were made for seven year olds, but we tried them on anyways. It was hilarious. That part was fun. I’m sure if I had more food in my stomach and it hadn’t been quite so hot that I would have enjoyed the houses more. But I’m quite frankly all famous-author’s-house-d out. Jess and I went to Khan’s for dinner – best Indian food ever! I loved it even more this time than last time I ate there. And then we spent half an hour hunting for Magnums, finally finding some in a shady little shop off of Queensway. I had the almond one – sooooo good. I’m going to miss Magnums when I come home. And all the amazing chocolate. I’m not going to miss what it does to my body though J The rest of the evening was spent trying to do homework and failing miserably. Not miserably, I guess. Just semi-miserably. You see, we have a midterm next week. It’s kind of ridiculous because it’s on nothing we actually learned in English and it’s less than a week before our final. Biggest joke ever. And it’s extraordinarily time consuming. Ugh!!!! I can see my GPA flying out the window into the London sky. I’m trying not to mind…but it’s a bit hard for me…Just pray that what I do will be enough, okay? Thanks. I appreciate it.

I've a Wales of a tale to tell ya, lads

Friday, June 4, 2010

Today began with a long bus drive to….WALES! Woohoo! A different country! All the road signs and building signs and such in Wales are written in both Welsh and English. I think they told us that about 60% of the population still speaks fluent Welsh. Welsh is the weirdest written language – I swear they just throw in a bunch of random letters. Trudndgleth, Blagnfndhyth, etc. (see warning sign picture)

No joke, that’s how the names of all the towns looked. I loved it. Our first stop in Wales was at Beaumaris castle, built by Edward I to show the Welsh how tough he was. It’s considered the most perfectly constructed castle ever – it’s two concentric circles.

There’s a moat, then a tick outer wall with slits for archers, then some green, then an inner wall with more archer slits. It’s kinda hard to explain without pictures. All that is needed to be known is that it was practically impenetrable, and it was built in just a few short years (different than many other castles that grow up over hundreds of years). I loved this castle. We were the only one there, so we were running all over the place. My friend Jess and I reenacted a scene from Labyrinth and a scene from Phantom of the Opera – the Phantom one is best for sure. And then we reenacted a scene from Monty Python. It was the scene with the French guy and the castle and the inquiry about the Holy Grail. That one was fun too. We climbed around the walls and turrets for a while, and then we left.

On the way out, we saw that there was a playground outside of the castle. I am assured that it is, in fact, original and the place where the knights would drop off their kids while they fought the enemy. We got back on the bus to find that Zoltan had bought us all donuts! He is the coolest bus driver in the world!

After Beaumaris we went to Caernarfon. This is the castle where the Prince of Wales is crowned to this day. It’s a much prettier façade of a castle that Beaumaris. We climbed all through this one too – up through the towers and all around the walls. This castle was not quite as impenetrable as the other. I think it was captured and recaptured 3 times. But it was still impressive and massive. I bought myself a tiny green pet dragon names Dewi here. After exploring the castle we got lunch in the town just outside the castle. We were sitting in the town square, eating our subway, when out of nowhere a large something swooped down and knocked my sandwich out of my hand. It was a seagull! A massive, angry seagull! And it didn’t go after my sandwich once it had knocked it down. No, it just sat there and stared at me, like “What now, girl?” Luckily my sandwich had landed bread down, so I picked it up and ate it. I’m still alive so it must have been okay. But that bird just sat watching me eat it. We ended up leaving because the bird was so weird. Crazy, scary bird! I was laughing so hard throughout the whole thing, though. It was definitely worth the story to be attacked by a seagull for my sandwich.

We spent the next three hours on the hot smelly bus before we got to Coventry to look at the cathedral and take a food break. There were the ruins of the old cathedral next to a new modern cathedral. The modern cathedral was not attractive in my mind. Not at all. And it had this weird statue on the outside of Michael triumphing over Satan that kind of frightened me…I definitely prefer older, more traditional cathedrals. After the cathedrals we were back on the road for London. We all chipped in and gave Zoltan season 1 of Scrubs (he likes American sitcoms) for being so nice to us. He was awesome. We arrived home and played football (fooooootball – you know, with a soccer ball) until it got too dark, during which I proceeded to slip on the grass and hit my tailbone twice…walking home was a bit hard…I was so exhausted after this trip, but it was so good to get outside and play after sitting in a stinky bus all week. I love Hyde Park. Three amazing locations – Lake District, Liverpool, and Wales. Three amazing days!

Nothing's Gonna Change My World

Thursday, June 3, 2010

This morning we took a ferry across the lake (fun!) so we could go to Hilltop Farm, Beatrix Potter’s home! The faculty has a tendency to not tell us what we’re doing until we’re on our way there, so many people were dressed inappropriately for a country hike, wearing flip flops and flats and skirts and such. Luckily, I was dressed mostly appropriately for the hike.

The trouble came when our group got lost. We hiked up into this beautiful wooded area full of blue bells and wonderfulness, but we could not find the farm. The picture to the left is of my friends being lost :) We headed back and found that we had missed the path that took us there. Oops. We went down to Hilltop and had a lovely couple of hours looking around. Inside they had Beatrix Potter’s books open to drawings that were inspired by something in the house, so you could see the original piece of furniture and then Beatrix’s drawing of it. It was really neat to see where some of her inspiration came from. I got to see Jemima Puddleduck’s gate and an egg that she laid hidden in the grass. I swear every single house in Britain has a beautiful garden – every single one. Hilltop Farm was a really cool place to visit. Now I really want to watch Miss Potter. Add that to the list of about 15 other movies I’ll need to watch when I get home.

After Hilltop we got a surprise – they took us to the Preston Temple! It was so gorgeous! It really felt like a refuge from the world, like it was entirely separate. You enter the little area surrounding the temple and you can’t hear a sound from the surrounding highways or anything – it was so calm and serene. I loved it!

We then made the trek to Liverpool, home of the Beatles! We stopped first at our hotel – yes, a hotel, not a hostel! – where we dropped off our things. We then went to Albert Docks and Prof. Macfarlane took us to the statue of immigrants donated by the Church on the docks. It was really neat to see that. We went into the Maritime Museum, where they had displays on the Titanic and two other ships that had rather tragic histories, all three connected to Liverpool. After that, we went to probably my favorite museum of all the museums I’ve been to – The Beatles Story Museum! The picture is of the group outside.

I so wish my dad could have been there. He would have loved it. And my friend Lucky. And my brother Josh. It was right up their alley. They started from the very beginning and told the story of the Beatles year by year. Each room was a different room from their history, including a replica of the Cavern and of their sound studio. It was really neat, and I learned a whole lot that I didn’t know before. I’m so glad I went. After buying souvenirs at the museum shop, my friend Jess and I went to the local mall and got pasties for dinner and then went Primark shopping. There are Primarks everywhere! It’s great! I got a few shirts and things for pretty cheap before we went and got some chocolate and headed back to the hotel.

A bit later, about 5 of us headed off in a taxi to find Penny Lane. And find it we did! Woohoo! We took a picture in front of the barbershop mentioned in the song – it’s supposed to be where the Beatles got their hair cut. Our taxi driver then informed us that he didn’t think his taxi was going to make it the rest of the way – it might explode on us – so he gave us a discount and handed us over to another driver.

We hopped in the other guy’s taxi and he proceeded to take us to Strawberry Field! However, he didn’t actually know where Strawberry Field was…so we got a bit lost before actually finding it. But we did find it! Then the taxi driver took us towards the Cavern where the Beatles first played. He was a cool guy. He had the thickest Liverpuddlian accent I have ever heard. And it was his first job as a taxi driver. We told him all about how we were studying abroad and everything, and he told us that now we could tell everyone back home about the Liverpool adventure we had – he said, “your first taxi explodes on you, and then the second taxi driver gets you lost – he’s lived in Liverpool his whole life, and he doesn’t even know where Strawberry Field is!” He was awesome. He did know right were the Cavern was, though, so we got to see where the Beatles were born! It was so cool! I love the Beatles, and I feel so much more fondness for them having been to all these places and heard their whole story. It was an epic evening in Liverpool.

We went back to the hotel and showered, which was amazing after being stuck in sweaty bus for most of the day. Our bathroom was rather spaceship-like. It was basically a pod in the corner of our room…kind weird, but immensely roomier than the Centre’s showers, so I’m not complaining. We fell asleep watching Toy Story. (awesome pictures coming)

If I was Elizabeth Bennet, I would not have been content with just Derbyshire

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

We left the Centre at 7:30 AM and rode the bus for quite a ways, during which most of us slept. I’m getting really good at sleeping on buses…it’s not very easy. There’s lots of bouncing and turning and personal boundaries to avoid crossing in certain situations. Some people come up with some very creative sleeping positions – various forms of cuddling, some people sleeping on the floor underneath seats and in the aisle, etc., which you can kinda see in the picture. I took some pictures of sleepers, most of which I plan on using for blackmail when the time is right. I felt justified in taking pictures of them because I know for a fact that they have taken incriminating sleeping photos of me, so it all comes out okay J Our bus driver’s name is Zoltan. Sweet, huh? Our first day was to be spent in the Lake District – it is absolutely the most gorgeous place. I now feel really bad for Elizabeth Bennet, who was supposed to go to the Lake District but had to content herself with Derbyshire. The Lake District is amazing.

Our first destination was Haworth, where the Bronte sisters lived! So cool! We saw the moors that inspired their novels and we saw their rooms and learned all about their lives. They have a graveyard right outside their front door – literally. It’s kinda creepy. No wonder their books are so dark. And, we learned that the water supply for the town used to filter down through all the bodies in the cemetery…yummy…they have since fixed that problem. Or so they told us. I loved seeing where Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were written and some of the things that inspired them. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books, and I just finished reading Wuthering Heights for class. I really liked Wuthering Heights – I hated the characters, but I got sucked into the story. It was weird. I really hated Catherine…both Catherines. I just thought they were dumb and ridiculous. And Heathcliff…let’s just say that I’m not a big fan of revenge. I think it’s a big waste of time and effort, and it doesn’t get you any real satisfaction. Since Heathcliff is obsessed with revenge the whole time, naturally I did not like him and was actually so extremely glad to see him die. I don’t care if that sounds bad. He just needed to be released from his torturous existence. Hopefully he found rest in fictional character heaven and finally got to be with Cathy.

After Haworth we hopped on the bus and found that Zoltan had bought us all candy! I ate coconut ice. Normally I don’t like coconut, but this was good! Next we went to Wordsworth’s house, Dove Cottage. This was a site which, once again, I did not fully appreciate because I am not the biggest Wordsworth aficionado. I did learn a lot about him while I was there, but my English professor definitely enjoyed it much more than I did. I’m pretty sure he was in heaven. The gardens behind Dove Cottage were my personal favorite part. They were gorgeous, and they looked out over a bit of the nearby lake.

My friend Jess found a ginormous slug too! We got some ice cream in the nearby village of Ambleside and then we went back to our hostel which was literally right on the edge of the most beautiful lake. We could see the lake perfectly from our room. We ate dinner at the hostel and watched the sunset on the dock right outside. There was many a picture taken.

We also went for a little jaunt along the edge of the lake, into a little park. It was beautiful. I noticed something weird though – it doesn’t get dark here, like really dark, until 11 or 12ish at night. I think it’s the lack of mountains compared with Utah that makes the difference, but it’s so odd to be walking around outside with your friends at 10 pm and have good light. We took sooooo many pictures. Ha ha not surprising. As I fell asleep that night I listened to my rather awesome playlist of all the songs that remind me of London. I think the most played on that list is the “Till I Hear Your Voice” from Love Never Dies. I just love his voice…such a wonderful thing to fall asleep to. (pictures coming soon)

Raoul vs Phantom - Phantom wins hands down!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Wow, it's June. Time is flying by here! It's rather frightening, actually. I can't believe I only have two weeks left...but that's not what I want to thing about. I want to think about two things:

First, the British Library. It's actually more of a museum, at least for tourists. We saw so many cool things there - original Beatles lyrics written on the back of a birthday card and on scraps of paper, the original copy of Alice in Wonderland (which was actually called Alice's Adventures Underground - we saw the original copy handwritten and drawn by Lewis Caroll!), the original, handwritten score for Handel's Messiah, handwritten scores by Mozart and Bach, the actual Guttenberg Bible and Magna Carta, illuminated manuscripts from centuries ago, and so many more amazing things. I absolutely loved it. I would have liked more time to explore the actual library part too - it's huge, and, if you know me you know that I have a bit of a love affair with any and all libraries. It was wonderful.

After dinner we ran to West End to try to see Lion King, but tickets are near impossible to come by in the manner in which we students do it (go an hour before and take whatever tickets haven't been sold for a reduced rate). I'm still determined to see it, but we'll have to go earlier to get tickets next time. Instead, we ran down the block and went to Love Never Dies, the Phantom of the Opera sequel. Okay, I'm still conflicted about this play. As a sequel to Phantom, it did not work for me - the characters changed too much (granted, there is a ten year gap between the two story lines) but they just weren't the same people. I'm going to try not to ruin the ending for anyone who still wants to see it, but the end just was not what I was expecting or wanting. That is, what I thought should have happened in a Phantom sequel. However, if looked at completely separately from Phantom, this musical was absolutely wonderful. I liked it in its own right - the music was great, especially Till I Hear You Sing as sung by the Phantom. I absolutely loved that song - so so so much. I just bought it on iTunes, in fact. The lyrics of the songs were rather poor, but the orchestrations were wonderful. And the story in and of itself, separate from Phantom, was actually quite enjoyable.If it had not been a sequel and just a musical on its own, I probably would venture to say that I loved it. If you want to hear how it ends, just ask - I love discussing it. The guy who played the Phantom had the most incredible voice, and he was quite good-looking, two things I delight in immensely especially when combined. It was an interesting, conflicting experience. My faithfulness to the original play inhibits my total love of the sequel, but I would recommend seeing it. And, afterwards we went to the stage door and we met Christine! She's American, from Denver, and she also played Ariel in the Little Mermaid on Broadway! And we met her! Woo! It was a fabulous night. I still can't believe I'm here doing things like this - going to plays, walking the streets of London, etc. And tomorrow we depart for Wales and Liverpool! Yay! So I won't be blogging for a couple of days, but don't worry. I'll have a zillion pictures to show when I get back :) Goodnight, faithful readers!

Here I go again - how can I resist you? :)

Monday, May 31, 2010

Today began with class, like many days do. Then class ended and we went to a concert at Wigmore Hall - it was the Vienna Piano Trio, and it was probably the most sublime music I have ever heard. They played Haydn's Piano Trio in E flat then Schumann's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor Op. 63. It was absolutely heavenly. They encored and played Shubert - that was probably my favorite part. It was so great. I'll admit, I slept through a bit of the middle...just for like a couple of minutes. It's so hard not to fall asleep when you're running on so little sleep and there's gorgeous music playing. I have decided that I am in love with cellos...and violins...but a little more cello than violin. I love the deep rich sound it can produce. It's such a beautiful instrument.

After the concert we ran over to the National Portrait Museum and saw so many famous portraits - the kinds you see in history books, except these were real and the original versions! It was so neat. We saw a bunch of the Henrys and Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots and a bunch of Queen Victoria. I especially loved it because, due to my history class, I actually know who all the people are and what they did so I could appreciate the portraits more. We went searching for Jane Austen's portrait and found it...it was a lot smaller than I was expecting...It was practically a postage stamp. But it was still really neat to see the real thing. It was painted by her sister Cassandra. While in the NatPortGal I ran into Eliza Cook and Sam Jensen from Highland - crazy! I haven't seen them in so long, since graduation I think. They're here on a U of U study abroad. It was really fun to see some familiar faces in the middle of London.

The absolute highlight of the day came after dinner in the form of MAMMA MIA!!! Woo! It was so much fun - such a fun show! I wanted to dance the entire time. Comparison with the movie is inevitable, so here are my thoughts - they are extremely similar, though I thought Meryl Streep was a better Donna and the guy in the play was a better Sam (no offence meant, Pierce. You just can't really sing...I still love you though, and now I'm craving a Remington Steele marathon). The relationships between Sophie and the dads was better developed in the play than in the movie, but I really missed Colin Firth - I absolutely adore him. Not that the guy in the play was bad - he was really good! I just love me some Colin. Mamma Mia is such a fun production. And at the end they invite you to stand up and dance. I most certainly accepted their invite! It was a blast and a half. I sang the songs and danced the entire way home. I can't believe how many amazing plays I've seen here!