Temple Trip & Lunchtime with Winston Churchill

TUESDAY


Classes were squished and earlier today so that we can get on the coach to head to the London, England LDS Temple! It was sunny and pretty and the temple was beautiful. I loved being there with some of the kids from the program. I love those people. They will forever be associated with being my friends during some of the best months of my life and experiencing this life-changing experience with me. The other night, we were talking about little habits and things that each of us does and I discovered some things that they know about me that I didn’t realize until they pointed it out. I don’t know how I’m going to spend a summer away from everyone. I’ll probably die.
{Roommates at London, England LDS Temple}

{me and my best mate}
Anyways, great day at the temple and then 5 pound night spent in Nando’s. Oh, Nando’s.

WEDNESDAY

Last Wednesday trip with the program…It was a really cool day. We’ve seen SO MUCH and yet we haven’t seen it all, today’s activities included. We lucked out for the timing of our tour at the Palace of Westminster, aka Houses of Parliament, because GB is having an election soon to vote for a new Prime Minister and so Parliament was out of session and open for us to see. We got to see Westminster Hall, where some important people, like kings and queens and prime ministers, lay in state before they’re buried. We also saw the chapel where Parliament was held a long time ago and where Charles I stormed in with troops to oppose Cromwell. Finally, we saw the House of Commons and the House of Lords, where the government happens, basically. This day was also the last day for the Q&A with the P.M. before the election and that happens after prayer time. So around 11:30, we stood in the middle of the houses and watched the official procession for the beginning of this. The lady who holds the staff that symbolizes the royalty being present at Parliament and the Speaker of the House of Commons (along with some others) walk down the long corridor to the Commons. An officer yells, “Speaker!” when they enter the corridor and when they got to us, another officer yelled “Hats off, strangers!”. And that was it haha. If we would have been able to wait for another 20 minutes, we probably would have been able to see the P.M., himself.

{Houses of Parliament}

But, we had another appointment at the Cabinet War Rooms on Whitehall. These are the bunkers where Winston Churchill stayed and worked during WWII and they just up and left it at the end of the war. Some people found it and opened it to the public just how it was left behind. Inside was also a Churchill museum, which was cool. I knew before that Churchill was a cool guy, but I never realized just how cool he was until today. I decided that if I could have lunch with any 3 people at this point in my life, I would choose: Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and Brigham Young. How cool would THAT be? Maybe I’ll get what I wish for in Heaven.

After a solid nap and dinner, Anna, Alyssa and I hit up Starbucks for study time. We got kicked out early than expected because they closed and we encountered a crazy homeless guy at this time. He walked in, talking to himself, set a suitcase down, walked out, came back in, still talking to himself. So we left. We tried to go to McDonald’s to get WiFi, but they didn’t have plugs for our computers. On our way out, we got stopped by a sweet, old lady who talked to us for 10-15 minutes about her life story. Weird homework outing.

Easter Weekend!

SATURDAY
Wowie what a day. We started off with a lovely little Easter weekend brunch, then Jenny and I headed off to Wimbledon! We had a hard time finding the tennis courts, but a couple of nice British people helped us out. I still can’t believe we actually did this! Our tour guide took us to see court #1, the press rooms where they interview the players after their games, court #2 under construction annnddd…CENTRE COURT!! For those who aren’t tennis enthusiasts, Centre Court is where tennis champions are born during Opens. This is also where the Olympic tennis games are going to be held in 2012.

{Centre Court}

{Jenny and I at Centre Court}

We checked out the museum, too, where they have the cup and plates they give to the winners at Wimbledon. They also had the history of tennis and lots of other neat-o stuff (like Roger Federer’s shoes from last season…sigh…).
After a few hours in tennis heaven, Jenny and I went to Whitfield, this HUMONGOUS mall at Shepherd’s Bush. I’m not exaggerating, it HUGE and overwhelming. We found a really delicious Chinese place for lunch, then we did a bit of shopping. I finally found a party dress! For 15 pounds! Yay! I tried Sblended milkshakes for the first time—they have at least 50 different flavors. I got milk chocolate digestive…IN A MILKSHAKE! Two of my favorite things combined.
We rushed over to Hyde Park Chapel for General Conference…at five PM??? It was weird having Conference from 5 to 11 PM, instead of 9 to 3. But Conference was good, as usual.
It was a wonderfully exhausting day with Jenny!
SUNDAY
HAPPY EASTER!! Easter weekend + Conference weekend = best weekend ever.
We had a nice Easter brunch with the whole program.
That night was Conference, again. In between sessions, they didn’t feed us dinner, so a group of us went to Zizzi’s for din-din. I love Zizzi’s. I’m going to open one in Oregon and pick up some cute Italian cooks while I’m in Rome, sound good?
I loved this weekend! The second to last—only one more left :(
MONDAY
After classes, since I played and Conferenced/Easter-ed all weekend, it was homework time. But after dinner, Annie and I went to see Handel’s Messiah at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field at Trafalgar Square. I had never seen or heard it all of the way through and it was so beautiful! Here in Britain, they celebrate holidays for as long as they can (my kind of people) and so they have Easter Monday off and everything closes down. This was a great end to the long Easter weekend!

"there's nothing you can say that isn't sung"

WEDNESDAY

Happy Birthday, Brittany!

We woke up in the castle…In the castle…Castle…and ate a good breakfast before loading up the coach. The first stop for today was Hadrian’s Wall in Housesteads, an old Roman wall on a very windy and cold hill with lots of slush. The wind was practically knocking us off of the wall. The next two stops were the homes of the poet Wordsworth. First was Dove Cottage, where he lived for a few years. Then was Rydal Mount where he lived for 38 years until he died. They were pretty houses with lots of history.
That night our sleeping arrangements were at the Hawkshead youth hostel in the middle of the lake district. It was so beautiful where we were at!! It reminded me of Oregon.
It was Brittany’s 20th b-day, so I got her a money cake and we partied it up in the pool room in the hostel.

THURSDAY

We started off the morning walking to Hilltop Farm, aka Beatrix Potter’s cottage in the lake district. It was one of the most beautiful walks ever! I saw the England that I imagined before I came here and how it looks in all of the pictures and movies.

{walk in the Lake District to Hilltop Farm}

{Hilltop Farm}

We then took the coach to Preston, where Peter took us on a tour around the city to see the church history sites. We saw the square where the missionaries preached and the Ribble river, where the first British convert raced to be baptized (George Watts). We saw where the cock pit used to be where the meetings were held by Woodruff and other missionaries. It has been a great opportunity to be able to see church history sites not only on the north trip, but throughout the study abroad program.
The next stop was at the Preston LDS Temple. It was so beautiful and I’m sorry that we didn’t have enough time to go inside.

{Preston LDS Temple}

That night we stayed in Liverpool. Brittany, Kira, Annie, Mary, Jake, Laura M., and I found the huge Liverpool shopping complex where we ate at a not so good burrito place (the further away from Mexico you are, the worse the Mexican food…). A few of us decided to stay to see “Bounty Hunter”, which was an OK movie.

FRIDAY
Happy Birthday, Margaret!
Liverpool is known for their mass emigration movements to America and Canada and elsewhere, including many saints who travelled to get to the SLC Valley. Liverpool is also known for…THE BEATLES!! So, we spent our morning at the Beatles Story Museum, of course. It was so good and fun. We then went back to the shopping area and ate and, well, shopped.

{Sky of blue, sea of green, in our yellow submarine}


{Guess who caught Beatlemania?}

The bus wasn’t very enjoyable, besides the good movies shown. The stops were great and I’m so glad that we got to check out these cities before we leave England.

Take off to the great white North

SUNDAY


Today was a sad sad Sunday. It was our last Sunday in our ward before we’re done. WHHHAAA??!! I don’t like that. This ward has been so sweet and giving and I’m going to miss them. I hope to come back to visit someday.

MONDAY

Today, the group kicked of the week-long trip to northern England. Not gonna lie, I dislike being on the coach, especially for long periods of time, BUT the place we travelled to today made up for it. Oh, and we watched “Bright Star”, so I forced myself to stay awake so that I could watch it.

First off, I have to tell you, “Pride and Prejudice” (2005 version) is now one of my favorite movies of all time almost just because I’ve lived that movie. It has become so much more significant to me because the places are real and tangible and just as romantic as the movies depict them to be. The first stop of our trip was Chatsworth House, aka Pemberley, aka Mr. Darcy’s house in the movie. That place is practically a palace. I can’t even imagine what the side of the house that the people actually live in looks like, because the tourist side is beautiful. We saw the room with the Canova collection (the statue room) with the Achilles piece and the big lions. Sorry, but the veiled lady piece and Darcy bust were used only for the movies and were not there. It was so fun because the girls I walked the house with were funny tour guides helping me to understand the house better. I don’t know what has gotten into me, but I’m just so giggly on this trip (probably because I’m the happiest I’ve ever been ever). And I was super giggly in that house.
We walked the gardens in the rain (so romantic and appropriate!). Don’t worry about it, I saw the waterfall, the stairwell where she runs to after creeping on Georgiana and Darcy AND the fountain/green area where they are loving each other at the very end. UG!!! It’s too much for me to handle, all this romantic business and no boys around.

{Chawton, aka Pemberley, aka where I'm living with my husband Mr. Darcy}

Next stop was at the Bronte parsonage at Haworth, Yorkshire, where Charlotte, Anne, Branwell, and Emily Bronte lived with their father and wrote their famous stories. It was grey and foggy—another perfect setting for, say, the author who wrote Wuthering Heights. No wonder that novel is so dark.

{Wuthering Heights, anyone?}

That night we stayed in a hotel in York. There wasn’t much to do in the city, so we created our own fun and raided the nearby Sainsbury grocery. After stocking up on ice cream, dark chocolate Kit Kats, hummus, and soda, Kira, Brit, Annie, Jacob and I ordered pizza at the hotel and just ate and talked for a couple of hours.

TUESDAY

Long shower, pack-up, breakfast. The group walked across the Roman wall that runs along for a good distance up town to the York Minster. There we had a guided tour by a funny British man who knew so much about the church. This was probably one of my favorite churches. It was so pretty, yet not as extravagant as some of the other churches we’ve seen (which might be why I like it-beauty in simplicity and elegance). We checked out the crypt, then Kira, Brittany and I hung out at the gift store being silly for about 30 minutes. Not going to brag, but our group contains professional gift-shoppers. We’ve been in probably more than 50 gift shops during this trip. You can’t avoid them and they suck you in with their kitzy-cute-weird-obscure objects up for sale.

{York Minster}

Back onto the coach. More driving. More driving. Then stopping at Fountains Abbey, more ruins caused by good ole King Henry VIII. I had so much fun there, too, with this group of girls that are so witty and fun to be around. Love them.

{Fountains Abbey}

I was thinking about this: how we’re NEVER going to have something like this again EVER in our lives. Living with the same 39 people for 4 months straight, living and eating and travelling with your professors and these same people, being around them 24/7, experiencing life-changing things with these same people, seeing these people at 6 in the morning stumbling to the coach or at 3 in the morning studying their butts off…we have such a unique relationship with each other. We love each other, make fun of each other, understand each other’s quirks and dislikes, know each other’s life stories and deep secrets. And we’re all experiencing this together. We will get together with our other friends from back home and at school and it will be fun and you’ll catch up. But then you’ll run into someone from the winter 2010 London study abroad program and just…know. Oh, Kira’s playing the piano, CJ is taking pictures, Arrin’s sketching, Rachel’s being studious, that’s all. Oh, remember that one time we walked the bajillion stairs up to the top of Notre Dame? These south of campus stairs are nothing. Oh, man I could really go for a gelato run. Let’s take the lift…I mean, haha the elevator, whoops. I love this. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Ok, let’s bring it back. After the abbey, we drove to Durham to our hotel and checked into the castle. CASTLE!! We slept in a castle. It’s used for Durham University, but it’s spring break for them, so we stormed the castle. Outside of my window, I could see the Cathedral where we attended evensong (which was so beautiful). It even smells like a castle.
After evensong, we ate at Nando’s. Then back to the castle, no big.

Michelle, my belle, these are words that go together well: My Michelle...

...the Beatles love me and I love the Beatles.

THURSDAY


Due to a late night homework party Wednesday night, I had the best nap today. After classes, my BritLit class took a field trip to the Tate Britain to check out some paintings done by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and William Blake, since we’re currently learning about them in class.

On the way back, Sarah Shepherd and I tried out Illy ice cream for the first time. I got strachiotella…strochiotella…strachiatello…and banana…mmmm…

Then I was productive the rest of the day with more homework. Finals, could you NOT happen this semester, please? Thank you.

FRIDAY

London Field Study Day!! Today we took the train out to Hampton Court, Henry VIII’s supposed favorite dwelling as king. We had a treat as visitors today due to a few things:

1. Even though it’s starting to be tourist season, it wasn’t very bust when we went.

2. They were celebrating the marriage of Henry VIII to his sixth and final wife, Kathryn Parr. Actors re-enacted the day a bit for us, which was cheesy and provided us comedic relief.

3. It was SUNNY! (for the most part) And so I only needed a light sweater throughout the day. This also meant that the flowers were in bloom! I love spring!

{Rachel and I with the flowers at Hampton Court}

4. Those in the Tri-Wizarding Tournament braved the great maze at the end of our visit. Although we weren’t able to complete the maze and ended up going out the entrance AND we didn’t get the Cup, we made it out alive.

When we first went in, the lady told Laura N. that it would take about 5 minutes for a smart person to get through. And we didn’t finish it after about 10. Uhhh…

True to our promise to ourselves, Annie and I plus some other friends made our way over to Bourough Market to get us some good etins’. I was brave and got a kangaroo burger. It was really good! I also got a vanilla and chocolate éclair. Love Bourough.

{Kangaroo, anyone?}

We were pretty pooped by the end of the afternoon, so we went back to the centre to get some hw done. That night, I was getting restless, so I went to the V&A museum with Brittany to try to see the architecture exhibit. Unfortunately, the exhibit was closed, but there was some kind of party going on. Apparently, the V&A is the place to be for a party on a Friday night. It’s also apparently the place for weird, post-mod flash performances by artistic-y kids. Brit and I became a part of this flash performance thing while checking out Michelangelo in the Italian casts room. Complete with golden shakers and a winged angel man, a choir was singing a…well…just see for yourself:


Afterwards, I peeked in and watched a bit of “New Moon” with some others in the classroom. Then to bed.

SATURDAY

Annie and I had a double-date day with Brit and Kira. We grabbed some breakfast from Tesco, then raced off to the London Eye by the Thames. It was fun! It was nice to know where everything was and feel like a true temporary citizen of London because of it. It was a bit overcast, but we were still able to see far and get some fun pictures. But wait, there’s more. Included in our ticket was the 4-D experience of the London Eye. Annie said that it was the best 4 minutes of her life. What can beat a 3-D movie with a little girl with her dad going up into the Eye and a seagull coming at your face AND bubbles? Not much. I mean, check out our stunna shades:

Next, we checked out the chocolate festival at the Southbank Centre. It wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be, but we did try some yummy chocolates.

Guess what we did next?  Uh, went to Abbey Road, that's all.  There were some cars going by the famous crosswalk, but we managed to get a picture.  Maybe not as legit as some, but it happened, nonetheless.  We saw the recording studio and the wall that everyone signs when they visit.  Here's a personal favorite of mine:

{Michelle @ Abbey Road}

{had to...}
We then succeeded in going up all 311 steps of The Monument. Oh yes, THE Monument is it’s real name. It was constructed by my pal Christopher Wren to mark where the first of the great fire of 1666 started. Annie pointed out that there aren’t as many places to have a great view of London from as there are in Paris, but this Monument is one of few (along with the Eye).

We then walked along the river to behind the Tate Modern to find a delicious little Mexican place called Tortilla. We ate there for lunch and it was good.

Annie and I went home so that we could get some more hw done. But first, Annie helped me plan out my academic life for next year. She loves doing this kind of stuff and she was a big help. Maybe I’ll let you in on the details later, once I figure out a few things, first.

Broken record time: I LOVE LONDON! And we only have 3 weeks left : ( what’s up with that?!?!
I won’t be on for a bit because this whole next week will be spent up North in York, Liverpool, and Durham. Besides the fact that we’ll be travelling by coach everywhere, I’m excited for it. One of the nights, we’ll be staying in a castle. For reals.

Adieu, Day Trips, parting is such sweet sorrow.

WENESDAY


LAST Day Trip Day. Ug, that makes me want to cry. Day trips are exhausting and we have to sit on the coach for forever, but that’s because we go to see cool things. So it’s worth it. It’s some kind of unwritten rule that Annie gets the window seat and that I always fall asleep (with my mouth open, I bet you ten pounds that at least 3 people has a picture of me on the coach asleep).

Today we went to St. Alban’s Cathedral first, mostly for the classical architecture. One side has Romanesque style, the other side Gothic style. We had to walk through a park to get there and it was warm and beautiful. We also went to the Verulamium Museum, aka ancient Roman city museum.

{St. Alban's Cathedral}

The next stop was the American Cemetery. It was a grounding experience and I’m so glad that we went. It felt like I was back in America and it was a nice feeling. There was a wall of the soldiers who went MIA. There was also this beautiful chapel we mosaic ceilings and a wall honoring the air forces during the war. Yay, America!

{American Cemetery}

Last stop was in Cambridge, to see the King’s College and its Cathedral. The Cathedral was pretty and the campus was amazing and old. After looking around the Cathedral, Annie, Eliza, Jen, Jenny and I went to the river to go punting! We had a cute tour guide and we got to see about 10 of the colleges from the river and learned all about them. I loved seeing the Wren Library. Next, we went to the market area and got some sweets and dinner. Annie, Jenny and I meandered over to the Fitzwilliam Museum, where the lady gave us special permission to go up to this balcony with paintings that we needed to see for our BritLit class. I was bummed that it closed before we could check out the impressionist paintings, but oh well.

{King's College-Cambridge University}


{punting on the Cam River-The Sigh Bridge, like the one in Florence}


{Wren Library, Cambridge University}


{antique-ing}

From Stonehenge in the snow to Warwick Castle and its peacock garden, from Shakespeare’s Birthplace to Oxford University, our day trips have been amazing! I loved ever one of our day trips and they will always be wonderful memories from my London study abroad.

Pennsylvania, I don't know where that is...pink pajamas penguins on the bottom...

TUESDAY


...or also know as: “Swaasavenyaaaa…badabeesadabah…”

If you’re reading this blog, you probably know that I don’t cry. I promise I’m not heartless, but it just doesn’t happen for me. So when I DO cry for something, you know it’s worth the cry. And the minute those words were sung and the animals started coming out, it happened and I couldn’t help it!

I hadn’t really thought about it before that night, but Disney rocks. Yeah yeah there’s that whole global domination anti-corporate that comes up, but think about it. It’s global because it’s good. Walt knew what he was doing when he started making movies about princesses being saved by prince charmings from the evil villans.

Take Lion King, for example. They really do speak Afrikaans and they really have those types of animals in Africa. And the music! It has and will continue to go down in history. I’m proud to say that I grew up during Disney’s glory days.

Anyways, back to this musical. I loved it! Rafiki was phenomenal, Timon and Pumba were funny, and Scar was perfectly scary.

It reminded me about my fav Disney movies and how long it’s been since I’ve watched one: Hercules (when we talk about him in myth, without fail “Zero to Hero” pops in my head), Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, etc etc etc…

“Who put the glad in gladiator? HER-CU-LEEZZES…” Don’t deny that you love it.