Week Three

This post will be incredibly short because, well....It was a boring week.

So highlights of this week....

National Portrait Gallery...We spent a long time there, we had an assignment where we had to find these specific paintings and look at and read about them, afterwhich we chose our favorite and the one that was most moving...I really enjoyed it...but sometimes these museums can get a little overwhelming. We go to so many and spend almost a full day there (until dinner) but it always seems that there is so much more to see and I can never get to everything. My absolute favorite part of the gallery though was the Victoria and Albert statue....My hopeless romantic side comes out with their story. Sigh....Love them.

Later in the week we took some walks (homework) but they were really beautiful and here are some pictures for your enjoyment! :)

Natural History Museum = Gorgeous architecture

Foot poppin it up with the booth and Benny in the background

Buckingham Palace!

Gorgeous...In front of Buckingham Palace. Plus it was a beautiful day!

Random park we found on a walk as the sun was setting :)

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful....We had a ton of homework and seriously spent most of the week in the Center trying to get everything done. That is until Saturday...

We woke up at like 6 am...rough...so we could get on the bus on time and go to....The White Cliffs of Dover!  We spent some time on the beach taking pictures and collecting rocks...that sounds more retarded in words then it did at the time......oh well. Then we got back on the bus and drove to Dover Castle and took a tour. The castle was cool, but the people were kind of anal about us touching things. The views were absolutely gorgeous though.

White Cliffs of Dover

I love the beach...no matter the season

Outside Dover Castle

We are never allowed to take pics in cathedrals, thus no pics of stained glass windows which I love... but no one was there to stop me from getting this one! Buahaha!

From the Roof of Dover Castle...it was freezing, but so pretty. Can you see France? 

We then went to St. Augustine's Cathedral...the ruins were awesome. And we had fun. The highlight was the random British couple who had the misfortune of being there at the same time as we were... Quote (old man speaking to his wife) "Our Colonial Cousins are jumping around and screaming." When said in a British accent  it is even more hilarious.

We then went to Canterbury. We got lunch at this cute little cafe and it was actually delicious. Then we ran (lost track of time) to make our tour of Canterbury Cathedral on time. We had a cute little old man take us around the Cathedral and we saw the spot where Thomas Beckett was murdered. We then got to attend Evensong. It was really interesting and cool. I've never really experienced anything like it and it was a good experience. We went home afterwards and spent the rest of the night doing homework once again. (I don't have pics cuz the cathedral was a no photography zone. :S)

Sunday was full of nursery kid craziness and homework. Ta da! That was my week!

Hampton Court Palace = Awesome

On Thursday we had class in the morning, and then a long break until our religion class in the afternoon. It was Ashley's birthday so between classes we went to Primark and she and Mikelle bought some clothes. After that we went to Harrod's and walked around for a long time. We wandered around the high fashion brands for a while and felt like grubby nasty ghetto white trash. We found an incredibly beautiful dress and looked at the tag... 12,530 pounds. We thought about buying it but...... After that we had to get back to the Center for class, and then we hung around and talked in the...parlor? Until dinner. We had dinner and although I'm not really sure what it was (I rarely ever know what it is), it was actually very yummy.

Ashley wanted to go ride the London Eye, so a group of us headed over there. We rode the bus, which turns out to be really enjoyable actually and possibly my new favorite thing. We got there and found out the Eye is closed for maintenance until the end of this month, sad day. :( So we decided to go get some dessert instead. We tried to find a good place, wandering around for a while. However, everything we tried was closed and so we ended up at Pizza Hut. Before you judge, you need to know something about London. Their American fast food restaurants that are trashy for us, are way nice here. McDonalds has sweet couches and chairs and they are decorated all fancy. So we walk into Pizza Hut and they seat us in a nice booth, we have a waiter, a salad bar, and all that fancy shmancy stuff. We got a delicious pizza, and then some yummy desserts. We came back to the Center and at that point Mikelle and I remembered that we had bought Ashley a birthday cake the night before. Haha. We were super sneaky and we got it all ready and lit the candles. A group of us sang Happy Birthday, but when Ashley tried to blow them out we realized we'd accidentally bought trick/relighting candles...oops...there was a ton of smoke, and the smoke alarm goes off really easily here, but half of us opened the windows while the other half put out the blasted candles in my water cup and laughed our heads off. Basically, it was amazing and hilarious.

The view from by the London Eye at night...I love this. So much.

Friday = The Best day ever! We took a trip to Hampton Court. We arrived and it was a very cold day so there was practically no one there. We took shelter from the cold wind in the information place and got audio tour things and then went off to explore the palace for ourselves. We (and by we I mean Mikelle, Ashley, and myself) started out by going through the story of Henry VIII. They take you through and in each room there are chairs to sit in that represent King Henry himself, Katherine of Arygone, and Cardinal Woolsey. They progressively tell the story through the descriptions and positions of each chair and other media things. (There was a video of Henry as his “young, charming, strong, confident” self...and let me tell you in that movie he definitely was all of those things....and super attractive. How he turned into a gross fatty is beyond me). So of course we took this as an opportunity to take on their identities and take pictures. In this presentation Henry will be played by Mikelle Benfield, Cardinal Woolsey by Ashley Chipman, and Katherine by myself.

Our Introduction

The King and I are in love...and Woolsey is doing a Dory impression.

The King is happy about our firstborn child...Its in a purple and black blanket bundle.

Then our baby died (Woolsey temporarily switched roles to be our dead baby...its for dramatic effect)

King Henry was upset that our son died...we have no heir now...so he started sleeping around. Woolsey isn't pleased...

I am hurt, lost, forlorn, disappointed, etc etc etc Why can't I bear a son?!

The King wants to divorce me because I can't bear a son but Woolsey isn't supporting it so he hides from Henry

King Henry sends me into exile and I'm pulled from the thrown...jerkface.

After we had our fun there we went to the kitchens. They told us all about how they had to feed 600 people at all the feasts and how they managed it. It was interesting, but the highlight was the roaring fire that we stopped by for a while, because it was freezing.

Dinner anyone?

Afterwards, we were looking for the royal apartments (a worker guy there told us this secret cool thing to look for involving a painting of Venus on the ceiling of a room in there...he told Ashley she looked like Venus too...daaaaaang girl). We got lost and misread the signs which took us to the Great Hall...the Great Hall was closed though but due to our confusion we tried very hard to get the locked door open resulting in the person on the other side rattling the door and terrifying us. Then we realized our mistake and quickly got out of there and found our way. We walked through the apartments looking for Peter Pettigrew...(Peter Pettigrew's stunt double from the movies is one of the workers there and some of our friends in the group met and took pictures of him and told us to go find him), but he was on a lunch break and so we were just looking around at all the rooms and reading things when we walked into this large room and freeze suddenly. King Henry is sitting across the room in a throne and his steward guy is closer watching us. The Steward begins talking to us and asks if we have any questions for the King, where we're from, etc. It was one of those awkward but hilarious moments where we all just froze and wouldn't talk and then he came and pushed us forward to the king making up some story about how we were all looking for husbands for each other and our sisters and asking the King if he knew of any worthy men in court. It was hilarious and the King called Ashley, aka our spokesperson to come closer and explain. We talked to them for a long time and then took pictures.

Us with the steward. He was choosing a new wife but then said "I have two arms." I guess Mikelle and I are sister wives...

Hey there King Henry

He left the room and we stole his throne...the Steward came back and this was the picture taken as he was coming towards me with his sword about to run me through...

After that adventure we found the gardens. It was freezing outside...coldest day yet, but it was beautiful and so worth it. We took a ton of pictures and then we headed back to the center. Basically Hampton Court was the best.

This is Hampton Court Palace...Its gorgeous. Love it.

Alexander...my pet swan

Alexander is my buddy and I love him

Oh well, ya know.

 We're starting a band, this is our band picture.

Saturday: We slept in, which felt amazing by the way, and then got up and ready fast. Every Saturday they have a bunch of huge markets that open up on the street and sell really cool stuff for pretty cheap a lot of the time. We decided to check out Portabello Market and headed off with a big group. We walked along looking around and found some really good cheap stuff (I hadn't gone to the ATM yet so I didn't buy anything...next week though... :)). There are all these street performers there that set up and play as people walk by, and we found this guy who was amazing. We stood and watched him for about an hour despite the cold weather (which just goes to show how good he was), and we are gonna try to find a gig of his we can check out sometime. Ashley and I were pretty in love with him (Robbie Boyd Band, Check him out. He sings better live and acoustic and his music videos are cheesy but he's really good, promise), while Mikelle was just wanting food and trying to get us to leave. Haha. We finally did and ended up getting caught in the rain and going back to the Center looking like wet rats. We cleaned up, got some food and were ready to go back out again. Ashley, Mikelle, Kaylee, and I then spent the rest of the day riding buses. Our oyster travel cards make them free and so we played a game where we'd get on a double decker and ride on the top and inch our way to the front seats as people got off and ride that particular one until it terminated. We did that honestly all day. It was awesome. We made some quick stops to get some cookies and go to Poundland but thats pretty much all we did all day. We finally headed back and then watched 10 Things I Hate About You with practically the whole group (We are reading The Taming of the Shrew, and that movie is based off of it...who knew? Okay probably a lot of people did, but I didn't).

Sunday/Today: Went to church, did homework. Its been fairly uneventful. But hey, I'm in London....its better to have an uneventful day in London I'd say :)

  

  

Second Week Part 1

Monday after class we went to Westminster Abbey! It was really beautiful of course...I so wish we could have taken pictures inside because I fell in love with the ceiling...it was to die for. Truly. There were cool things there and we spent a lot of time going through and seeing lots of monarchy tombs and memorials. There was also a whole corner of the Abbey dedicated to memorials of authors, poets, musicians, and actors. Some really cool people included Chaucer (his tomb was there and we wondered how he fit in there unless he was like 3 feet tall or they folded him in half or something), Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Handel, Lawrence Olivier, etc. It was so cool to be there and afterwards we went on a walk around the city and took lots of pictures. So here are some!

Mikelle and I with our friend Benny

Westminster Abbey (No photography allowed inside :( Bummer)

Ashley. Me. Mikelle. We're cool.

So I am OBSESSED with this view. I took pictures from all different angles as the sun went down...its been my absolute favorite scene thus far...

Tuesday we went to the British Museum! I feel like we could have spent hours and hours in there and not even scraped the surface. Thus, we will be going back to catch some of the things we missed. But here are some of the cool things we did get to...

This is the Bog Man...His entire remains just like this were found and preserved in there or something...that's about all the plaque said about him but we all wanted to know how he died. As you can tell, he's kinda camera shy and no being very photogenic.

Dum Dum give me Gum Gum.

This is the Rosetta Stone. Super cool...wish I had a better camera to catch the engravings through the case. Sooo cool. 

After we got back from there we ate dinner and then....lucky us it was our Laundry day!!! Due to the fact that there are a bunch of people using the 3 washers and 2 dryers we have here, plus the dryers take forever and a half, Mikelle and I had a few brilliant ideas. 1. Combine our laundry and kill two birds with one stone. 2. Do our homework while we waited in the laundry room. 3. Read The Taming of the Shrew together...acting out the parts. It was the best basically.

Today we went to Paddington Library. Its our public library and we got cards and found out info about it. Its teeny. Afterwards, we went to the British Library. We did this scavenger hunt thing and looked around after getting lost. The scavenger hunt included amazing things like Jane Austen's notebook and writing desk, Charlotte Bronte's manuscript for Jane Eyre, the Magna Carta, Handel's Messiah score, and so many others. Everything was so awesome.

After we left the museum we went on a walk....um sketchiest thing of my life. We saw some dude get arrested...and were practically followed by gangs. But, it was quite the experience.

We got back and we ate dinner...I'm not even sure what it was, but it was actually really good! This was quite the good news, as our meals here have been.....um interesting? Alright, lets be honest, they've been gross. So that was a really great part of today. After that Mikelle and I went to this store, Morrisons. We were there until it closed looking at everything because it was actually a fairly normal store and reminded us of American grocery stores. Now we are back at the center watching PS I Love You, and I'm crying as I finish this blog post. Haha...

The British Library! They are also bums about taking pics inside but a bunch of us jumped in a picture in front. :)

My First Week in London in a Nutshell.....

Hey Ya'll, so I have been in London for a week now as of today. Thus, this post will be incredibly long and perhaps boring as I try to recap every day since I left Utah.

Day 1: Okay so we left last Thursday and flew to DC. We had a super long layover because our second flight was late and it was a mess. We flew all night and landed early Friday morning in London. Let me just say, it is beautiful. The sun was out and it was gorgeous! We took a tour bus to our flat and got our dorm assignments. Thankfully, I am in the 8 girl dorm which is located on the first floor of the flat. You do not understand what a blessing that is given that there are a hundred thousand stairs to the other levels and we were toting fifty pound bags. Anyways...after we all unpacked we immediately ran out and went on a group walk around the city. We were all exhausted and hungry and it was kinda miserable. We came back and come to find out I am in the first group assigned to kitchen duty....worst thing of my life. It wouldn't be so terrible if it didn't take 3 to 4 hours out of your day and we have just been so exhausted this week. So that first day we set up dinner, ate really fast and immediately went downstairs to start on the mile high pile of dishes. We hadn't finished and we had to go up and leave to go see Ralph Fiennes (aka Voldemort). We were in this super intimate theater and he was on stage talking about his new movie Corolinus and answering questions. This would have been super cool....but unfortunately I think over half of us succumbed to the exhaustion and were bobbleheads the entire time. We got home and I went down to finish the dishes with my group and then finally collapsed into bed.

Day 2: We were all still pretty tired Saturday as well. We got up and got all ready and then went out on another walk to Trafalgar Square. We made stops to Convent Gardens and saw a strange saw a strange street performer who was anything but entertaining. But the shops and food places were really cool. Then we walked through the theater district and raved about all the shows we wanted to see. We ended at the National Gallery....a couple of us went in and we spent maybe an hour in there and didn't even scratch the surface of all the exhibits. We left the gallery and explored the area getting lost a few times and then got delicious waffles, walked through Hyde Park, had a fireside and were assigned to our wards, and got some food.

Day 3: Sunday....kind of a mess. We were separated into various groups for church, and my group was told we met at 1. We get there and find out the new year forced the two wards in that building to switch times and we'd missed ours at 9. We stayed anyways and it was really interesting, but I didn't really get into it knowing it wasn't my actual ward. Crazy thing...It takes us an hour of travel time to get to church. I know I probably sound like a snob, but coming from someone who literally walked 2 minutes to church almost my whole life, this was a big deal. Because of travel time, church is turned into kind of an all day thing. I'm excited to get to go to our actual ward this week though and then perhaps I'll have more to tell.

Day 4: Monday we started class. Class goes from 9-12 with a half hour break inbetween classes. Then we went on the Londinium walk and ended at the Museum of London; which was awesome. But of course, my group had to rush through it a bit to get home in time for kitchen duty. :S

Day 5: Tuesday we had one class and then went for yet another walk to The Tower of London! Um...amazing. The Crown Jewels were pretty dang cool and we were just messing around and enjoying all the cool things to see.

Day 6: Wednesday, after classes we went to St. Pauls Cathedral. When we got there we saw a million tents set up for the Occupy London peeps...they were all hobos and weird and wearing masks. Not really sure what to think but that was beside the point. St. Pauls...It was amazing...that was really the moment I realized first hand how old everything is. Our tour guide was a cute little old man who seemed really excited to tell us everything. Overall is was just amazing.

Day 7: Thursday (oh good we're almost done...) We had class and then in between we went out...I think? I can't really remember...all the days are running together. But at 2 we met for our religion class. This guy comes to teach it and he seems awesome. He'll be teaching us the history of the British mission and he knows a lot and it seems like it will be really good. After that we went out and checked out Platform 9 ¾. It was not as cool cuz they took it out of the main station and now its just in this lame alcove surrounded by construction...but we still took pictures and it was fun to be out.

Day 8: Friiiiday, we don't have class on Friday, which rocks, but we had a day trip and we went to Runnymede (some field place where the Magna Carta was signed and where there is a memorial for JFK? Random?) Then we went to Windsor Castle. It was pretty awesome, but a lot was closed for cleaning so we got our passes stamped so we can go back and see the apartments. We also went to Eton College (which for those of you who don't know, isn't actually college...its like middle school...aka babies....some of the girls found that out the hard/pedophile-ish way). We looked in some cool little shops and then we went home. We just stayed inside the center and chilled for the night.

Day 9: Saturday....I woke up earlier than I should have...but later than I have been waking up. We got ready, went to Harrod's and didn't even try to pretend we could afford anything in there. Then we got free lunch in a pub....score. Then we took a walk South of the Thames, got starbucks hot chocolate deliciousness and went home. We went out again for some food and then came back and have just been chatting, blogging, etc.

So that was my week... sorry the descriptions got incredibly short. I kinda have forgotten some details and they'd probably bore you anyways. I'll try to be more diligent in my blogging....but I need feedback...If there is anything anyone wants to know about then just give me a category and I'll write about it...this should take away from the monotony of the events of the day. :) So, whoever reads this, let me know!