I didn't know my hands could turn that color.....

Friday was mostly a studying and homework day for me.  I got a lot done which was great.  As part of my homework, I went on a walk through the City.  Me and my friends stopped briefly into a church and there was a free organ concert that we were able to catch the last piece of.  It was beautiful!  All I could do was think of my dad and how much he would have loved it and appreciated it even more than I could.

Along with organ concert, I went with some friends to grab some dessert after a long day of studying.  We all got tarts-I got a chocolate one.  It was delicious!  It was like eating straight ganache in a pie crust. Delicious!

Saturday, our group went to Brighton and Canterbury.  First in Brighton, we stopped at the Royal Pavilion.  It was done in a chinoiserie style and very ostentatious.  I was not a huge fan of it.  After that, we were dropped off at the coast in Brighton.  There was a fun pier there.  I loved walking up and down in.  It reminded me a lot of Santa Cruz!  Unfortunately, it was freezing!  Apparently, it was colder that day than it had been on Christmas day.  Yeah, my hands turned a funny purplish-blue color.  Luckily, they went back to normal and I'm all good.  The other plus side was the Cadbury Creme Egg Milkshake I had. It was fantastic!

The crazy building

The pier

The delicious milkshake!

Later that day, we made our way to Canterbury.  It was such a charming town.  We spent most of our time in the Cathedral, which was absolutely gorgeous!  It was a beautiful building with some really cool history to it.  Everyone there was friendly and it was great to look around.  We also had the opportunity to stay for Evensong.  Evensong is a service in the Anglican church that is mostly sung by the men's/boy's choir.  They sing psalms and have readings from the Bible.  The music was heavenly. It was a really cool experience and it was great getting to understand the Anglican faith a little bit better.

The cathedral

I dreamed a dream of walking through my textbooks!

Wednesday morning, we visited Westminster Abbey.  It was absolutely beautiful and had such a cool history!  My favorite part was probably the British version of the tomb of the unknown soldier.  It was just so respectful and peaceful, even when the rest of the Abbey was busy with visitors.  It was also really cool to see Queen Elizabeth I's, Handel's, and many other famous peoples graves.  The gothic architecture was also exquisite.  I loved visiting the Abbey!

Westminster Abbey

Later that day, after class, our entire group went to see Les Mis.  I had never seen this show before, just heard some of the music.  I had heard it was amazing, so I went in with pretty high expectations.  Even those high expectations were absolutely blown away!  The show was fantastic!  The Jean Valjean in particular did a fantastic job.  I don't know if I've ever been so moved by a musical in my life.  I laughed, cried, and literally had my breath taken away.  If you ever get the chance to see it, definitely do it!

At the show

Thursday, after class, we got to go to the British Museum.  It was super cool!  I literally felt like I was walking through my textbooks.  It was so surreal that I actually was seeing these things.  From the Rosetta Stone, friezes from the Parthenon, mummies, a 950 year old chess set, Greek black-figure pottery, and so much more, I felt like I was literally walking the pages of my Civ textbook.  I only wish I could have seen it with my roommate Brittany who would have absolutely loved all of the Egyptian rooms and told me so many cool things about them that I never would have known otherwise.  (Brittany is studying the Ancient Near East and wants to eventually become an Egyptologist).

The Rosetta Stone

The London 2012 Olympic Medals

That night, some of my group went to see the musical Matilda.  This had been one of my favorite books growing up, so I was both nervous and excited to go see it.  My apprehensions were needless.  The show was amazing!  It was just so uplifting and happy.  The show had a fantastic cast (the children in particular were amazing! they were just so talented!!!), witty dialogue, catchy music, fabulous choreography, and a really cool set.  If you ever get a chance to see it, definitely do it!

The amazing set!

So, I guess in the last 2 days, I dreamed a dream of walking through my textbooks and actually got a chance to go do it!

As you like it (I like it quite a lot!)

These last 2 days have been very long and busy days!

Monday, we had class and then left for Stratford-upon-Avon.  It was the first sunny day since we've been here.  It was beautiful!  The bus stopped in a cute little town, Chipping Norton for lunch (which, incidentally was the wrong town.  We were supposed to stop in Chipping Camden).  It was a quaint town with really good food.  I enjoyed a bakewell tart, which to my best understanding, has raspberry jam on the bottom and some kind of egg/almond top.  It was absolutely delicious!  We also had fun window shopping at various small shops on the road.

As we continued driving to Stratford, I fell in love with the English countryside.  It was gorgeous!  I love it much more than I love London.  Although these pictures cannot fully capture it, here's some pictures that might help explain why I love it so much:

After we arrived in the Stratford area, we visited Anne Hathaway's house, Shakespeare's birthplace, and Trinity church (where Shakespeare was christened and is buried).  All the houses were lovely, especially Anne Hathaway's gardens.  It was really cool to be in places that Shakespeare and his family walked and lived.  I also learned cool things like how Elizabethan people cleaned out chimneys using chickens and the origin of the word curfew.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Where Shakespeare was born

That night, we also had the opportunity to watch RSC's production of 12th Night.  Overall, I really enjoyed the play.  The Malvolio in particular did a fantastic job.

Yesterday, we went to Hampton Court, one of the royal residences and the favorite of King Henry VIII. I really enjoyed it!  It was cool to see medieval kitchens, William and Anne's apartments, King Henry VIIIs section of the palace, eat in a room that's older than our country, and walk around beautiful gardens.  It was absolutely lovely (and a beautiful day which made it so much better)!  My photo uploader's having problems right now, but I'll try to post some later.

Along with the beauty of the place, I was struck by an idea less beautiful.  While the king and his court lived in opulence, the people around him lived in squalor and filth.  It's a sad juxtaposition.  Then I realized that still happens today.  It was rather a sad contemplation after viewing such a beautiful place.

That night, I went on one of my assigned walks around London in an area called Little Venice.  It was beautiful!  There were canals with house boats and ferries on them.  It was quite different from other parts of the city I've been in and I quite enjoyed it.

It's a Small World......

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to the Britannia Singles Ward.  You can imagine my surprise when  I walk into church and I realize that I know the bishop.  Bishop Gil used to live in my stake back in California and I went to Girl's Camp with his daughter.  His family moved a couple of years ago, but I didn't remember where (until I moved into church that is). It was really cool to see them again and it just reminded me how much of a small world it is.

After church, some friends and I took advantage of the momentary pause in the rain and we walked through Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens (I'm not sure which parts we were in.  You see, the two blend into each other).  It was a beautiful afternoon to walk through and appreciate God's creations.  Everything was just so green and people were everywhere enjoying it along with ourselves.  While I was walking through, it was easy to forget I was in a large city.  It almost felt like the countryside.  It was just a nice breath from the hustle and bustle I normally run into in London.  I'll definitely have to explore this area some more while I am here.  

The Peter Pan Statue!!!!  I was so excited to find this since it was one of my favorite books as a child.

No editing. It really is that green.

 

London Bridge is Falling Down

Well, at least it didn't fall down when I was on it.  So, yesterday I got to cross on the London Bridge, which wasn't too exciting besides the song playing in my head the whole time.

We also went to Borough Market yesterday, which is a large food market in Southwark.  There was so much food!  I personally got the hot chocolate (so thick it tasted like melted chocolate), a cheesy pretzel, and strawberries(which were absolutely delicious! and cheap!).

Then we saw quite a few cool things on our walk to the Tate Modern.  We saw Southwark Cathedral (where Shakespeare attended church for a while), Sir Francis Drake's ship, and the Clink (the prison that gave all others the nickname).

We then went to the Tate Modern.  I have come to appreciate most modern art, but I have to say, modern art is not my favorite.  However, there are some pieces I really enjoy like:

(if you look carefully, you can see 3 women sitting around a table.  Kinda' cool, right?)

But other pieces, I have a hard time accepting as art.  Such as:

(This is literally a piece of paper with pencil writing on it)

But, I guess that's partly just a taste thing.

Well, after the museum, I got to go on the Millennium Bridge (the bridge featured in Harry Potter).  Luckily, no death eaters attacked the bridge while I was on it.  

Then, we made our way over by the London Eye and had a nice view of Parliament and Big Ben.  Before we made our way there, we had an interesting encounter with a wolf man. Well, more precisely, a man in a wolf costume (a street performer).  He opened his arms out to Katie and she went over.  Then he was like, take a picture!  So, I did.  As I took the picture, he moved so it looked like he was eating her head.  It was very strange.  Before this, we didn't understand the street performer culture, but I think we now have first-bite experience (kinda like first hand. ha, ha.  yeah, it was a bad joke I know).

After the odd street performer experience, we had beautiful views of the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.

Cathedrals, Museums, and Medieval Torture, oh my!

The last two days have been jammed packed!

Thursday, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was simply breathtaking!  The decorations were magnificent and the history was fascinating.  Something I found that was really interesting was all of the war memorials within the church.  There was even a war memorial above and behind the high altar.  I was also really excited to see the statue of John Donne.  You see John Donne was Mr. White's, my favorite English teacher, favorite poet.

After we finished touring the church, we were able to go up into it's dome.  Let me tell you, forget stair masters-all you need are the 100s maybe even 1000 or so stairs at St. Paul's.  But, the stair climbing was totally worth it.  The views from there were absolutely breathtaking!

After that, a couple of us stumbled across the Bank of England museum.  It was cute and we even got to crack open a safe (we won a little gold bar pin as a reward).

Yesterday, we went to the Tower of London.  I have to admit, it wasn't my favorite.  It was overcrowded and a bit too creepy for my taste. But, it was still cool to be there and see the royal jewels and armory and other stuff like that.

We then took a walk that followed the old Roman walls, even getting to touch some of them.  It's hard to believe that I touched something that's been around since 600 A.D.  Pretty crazy, right?

Then, we went to the Museum of London.  It was incredible!  I literally felt like I was walking through history.  I honestly felt like a kid in a candy store, everything was just so fascinating.  I feel like I could go to the museum a hundred times and still not have seen everything.  My favorite areas were the Victorian displays (with awesome clothing displays and window fronts) and the WWI and WWII displays (had an amazing movie about what it was like to live during the Blitz).  It made me think of family a lot (it's the kind of place we all love going to).  It made me kind of homesick the rest of the night.  But, I'm doing better today.

Last night, I even got to try my first British candy bar, a Cadbury Bar with a Turkish (turkish delight) filling.  It was delicious!

A very long, but good, first day

I can't believe I am writing this blog in London right now!  It's still completely surreal.  Anyways......

Tuesday morning, bright and early, I left my sister's and made my way to the airport.  Slowly but surely more and more people from my program showed up and it turns out that 1/4 of my program was on my flight.  It was a lot of fun and made the long flight much more enjoyable.

After 15 hours of flying, we finally made it to Heathrow airport.  Everyone went through customs and got their luggage without a problem.  Then we had quite a bit of an adventure finding the shuttle our professors had set up to pick us up.  After everyone was there, we called the shuttle company like we were supposed to.  The shuttle was supposed to pick us up at 8, but wasn't there. It was freezing and raining pretty hard.  We kept looking and asking people if they knew anything (it turns out someone did tell us the place they should be, but they weren't there so we didn't quite believe them).  After quite a while and talking to lots of people, the shuttle showed up and we finally made it to the London Centre.

We got to set up our bedrooms and two of the professors' daughters (Rachel and Ellie, ages 6 and 4) helped me make my bed.  We're really good friends.

We also went on a walk around our area. It's a beautiful, amazing area.  It includes Hyde Park (including Peter Pan Park, which I hope to go to with my new friends Rachel and Ellie), Whitely's, and lots of cool restaurants, etc.).  

The rest of the day, I mostly just tried to stay awake and I did some homework.  At the end of the day, almost our entire group invaded a gelato store.  It was so delicious!  I got Honeycomb and Biscotto (Italian Cookies and Creme) gelato.  It was so good!

After a very long 31-32 hour day (with maybe 2-3 hours of sleep) I went to bed super early and got a lot of sleep.  It was a very long, but good, first day.