Nikki's Adventures in Europe!!

20 Things I've Learned on My Study Abroad

2009-08-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

1. I’ve learned that sometimes public restrooms will just have to do…
2. I’ve learned that I am really really grateful for showers that are the same consistent temperature
3. I've learned what bed bugs are
4. I’ve learned that Marks and Spencer’s is the best store in the world
5. I’ve learned that I appreciate toilets in America that flush on the first attempt
6. I’ve learned that castles and cathedrals are amazing but no matter who you are they eventually get boring
7. I’ve learned that I am not the biggest fan of Shakespeare plays
8. I’ve learned to not talk to strangers on the tube late at night
9. I’ve learned what “snogging” really means…
10. I’ve learned that “a chance of afternoon showers” means that it is going to rain all day…
11. I’ve learned that late night “study” parties are great, especially when we have all been cooped up all night and Saire has her “clothes” to play dress up in…
12. I’ve learned how to substitute chocolate bars for frosting
13. I’ve learned that in Ireland “craic” is not a term for an illegal drug
14. I’ve learned to not flash the peace sign to anyone in Europe…
15. I’ve learned how to stop terrorism with a simple hug…
16. I’ve learned to make the most of every second
17. I’ve learned how much I appreciate my family
18. I’ve learned that not everyone can always get along perfectly but you just need to learn to accept and love everyone for who they are
19. I’ve learned how much I enjoy learning and stepping out of my comfort zone
20. Finally, I've learned about a new and different culture, learned how to embrace and adapt to it, but more importantly learned that in the end we are all the same

Oh and a bonus just for fun: I’ve learned to always always always “mind the gap.”

2009-08-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

yup im definately still awake and its 2 am...and im getting up in 4 hours....

So Long Scotland (August 11th)

2009-08-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up and went to Arthur’s Seat which is one of the tallest hills in Scotland. We hiked up to the very top and it was beautiful. Edinburgh is starting to grow on me, I guess its because I was able to get out of the city. The hike was beautiful and we could see out over the city for miles. On our way we saw this exhibit that showed a bunch of crazy street signs. They were so funny! I will post a few pictures of them. We then went to my favorite store (marks and Spencer’s) which is probably the thing about Europe that I will miss the most. We stocked up on some last minute groceries and then came back to the hostel to pack. It was our professor’s birthday today so we made a few cakes. We got really into it and went all out. The only problem is that people here do not know what frosting is so we had to improvise. For one of the cakes we found some marzipan and tried to make that work, and for the other one we melted a giant chocolate bar and used that for frosting. We made some really awesome chocolate covered strawberries to top the cakes off. Even though we had a hard time getting the right ingredients the cakes turned out really good.
I am really sad to be leaving Europe tomorrow. I definitely could have stayed in London a lot longer. Im ready to get out of this hostel though… I feel like this is worse than camping… it will be good to see my family and friends but I am not ready for this adventure to be over. I am really so lucky to have been able to participate on this study abroad. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am really grateful to be here. Im heading home tomorrow morning at 6 am and get into salt lake at around 9 pm. Lets just say its going to be a long long day.

2009-08-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

some funny signs

2009-08-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

Last few days.. (August 10th)

2009-08-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

this picture is of my professors and me. from the left: Larry, Diane, Me, Rachel our TA and Wendy

Yesterday we basically worked on our paper all morning and got most of it done. After we went out to lunch to the café that J.K. Rawlings started to write Harry Potter. It was called the elephant café. It was decent food, nothing too special but it was fun to be there. After we walked around Edinburgh and saw a lot of the city. This place is still not one of my favorites. Its dirty and crowded. In one store I thought I was going to go crazy because there were a billion people, not enough space, and annoying bagpipe music playing way way too loud. The day did get better though. We had our closing banquet last night and we went to this really good restaurant. Dinner was so good but the best part was dessert (white chocolate cheesecake with blackberries)!! We watched a slide show of all of our pictures and everyone was given an award. Mine was “so much fun we forget she’s a vegetarian.” It was a fun night and a good time being with everyone one last time.

Edinburgh (August 8th)

2009-08-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

So Scotland hasn’t been the most exciting place we have been… its still been nice don’t get me wrong but I miss London. We are staying in Edinburgh and im not a huge fan. It’s a rougher city and it gets a little dangerous at times. So at night we basically have to hang out at our lovely hostel. I miss the country, it was beautiful. I have learned a few things about this country…I have learned that you never use the “E” word (English). They do not have very kind feelings towards the English. Also Scotland has about 12.5 million sheep and only about 5 million people. Crazy right? Of those 5 million people, 7% own 80% of all the land. In other words there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor and there is a small portion of the country that is extremely wealthy. We went on a tour through the country yesterday and saw a castle and a few cities but it wasn’t too exciting. Our bus driver was pretty cool; he wore a kilt…that was about the highlight of my day. My hostel keeps getting better and better…. Ive seen quite a few naked men walking around (in fact we have officially re-named this hostel the “creeper men hostel.” every morning we wake up to the stench of cigarette smoke…we sleep on beds that squeak every time you move an inch and they wake everyone in the room up…what else…I don’t know, other than that Scotland is great…
Last night was two of the girls in our groups birthday so we went out to dinner and then kenzie and I made a birthday cake for them. We had to improvise because on the package everything was labeled in ml instead of tsp or tbls… also, we had no tools for measuring so it was very makeshift. It turned out great however and everyone liked it. We were proud of ourselves.

scotland! (August 8th)

2009-08-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

the top picture is our bus driver Brian. the next picture is my dinner.. jk doesnt this pigs head look delicious? we found this at a castle in the mock kitchen.

the next picture is of a "mormon" sheep that we found. lets see if everyone can put the pieces together...

Hadrians Wall (August 7th)

2009-08-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

We also stopped at Hadrian’s Wall today on our way to Scotland. This is a wall that was built by the Romans to keep the Scottish out of England. It runs the whole boarder of the two countries and in some places is four meters high. We walked a long it for a while and of course snapped some pictures. After we got back on the bus. It seemed like we were on it for so long today. My back was hurting from sitting so long it was miserable. We finally arrived in Scotland after a long long long drive. The worst was still to come. I don’t know how but for some reason I ended up with eight bags. I looked like an absolute idiot trying to haul all my stuff down the road to the hostel. Everyone was pointing and laughing and one guy even commented that it is always easier to travel light. I wanted to punch him. Then we got to the hostel and found out that we had to go up two flights of stairs…no elevator… and once we finally got to our room we realized how miserable this stay is really going to be. The rooms are tiny!!! And we have a dozen people in each room; have co-ed showers and bathrooms, and no outlets in our rooms. So 25 girls trying to get ready in the morning is going to be so much fun. I really am grateful to be here I know it doesn’t sound like it right now…but I think that after this week I will be happy to be going home.

Fountains Abbey (August 7th)

2009-08-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

Today we were traveling all day long. We started off the day by leaving York and traveling to fountain abbey. This was absolutely stunning. It was an ancient monetary where “white” monks went to get away from the world. White monks were different that other monks in that they wore all white. Nobody except the people living in the monetary were allowed on the land (except eth exception of a few people who were visiting the hospital). There were the monks and the Laymen. The monks were the ones that could read and they took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The laymen were the workers. They took care of the grounds and they were not literate. They did everything from baking to shoemaking to plumbing. They had to sleep in separate dormitories from the monks and also had to go to church separately. They monks day consisted of church three times a day, writing, and one meal. An interesting fact is that regardless of the number of hours of sunlight they always divided the day into the same number of “hours.” So in the summer time, they would have longer intervals in their “hours” and in the winter they would have the same number of “hours” but they would be shorter. Does that make any sense? So in the summer the sun would rise at about 2 am and set at about 10 pm. In the winter it would get light at around 8 and dark at around 5. one last interesting fact about this monetary is that during the reformation king Henry VIII too all of the metal off the roof and melted it to make guns. This was also a statement made to the church in that he didn’t want to be part of it anymore. It was at that time that the monks were all kicked out of the monetary and since then there has been on catholic monarch. However this is trying to be changed seeing as prince Charles is married to a catholic.

York (August 6th)

2009-08-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

In York were got dropped off at noon and had until eight at night to walk around. This would have been great except in Europe everything closes are about six at night…so we had a lot of time to wander around. We started off with a walking tour…which minus a few cool facts was lame and im glad I didn’t have to pay for it. York is a cute little town that is completely surrounded by a stone wall. Even our bus wasn’t allowed inside and we had to be dropped off outside of the city. It was a wall built by the Romans and most of it is underground. There was one place on the walk where you could see three ruins of walls. The first was the wall of an old hospital, the second was the roman wall, and the outside wall was a medieval wall. Also in York there was a large cathedral in the center of town. It was beautiful. I learned that a few years back it burned down and the giant rose window was shattered into 40 million pieces. Amazingly enough they were able to salvage all of the pieces and put it back together! Finally the last cool fact I learned about York is that it has the smallest police force in all of Europe. It consists of 11 policemen, almost all of which look after the cathedral.
After our little tour four of us went to this awesome smoothie place and then went on a tour of some dungeons. It was almost like a haunted house, it was really scary and they showed you all of the gruesome history of the city. We saw torture champers and tools that they used for it. We also saw the history of the Vikings and how they murdered hundreds of Anglo-Saxons when they arrived. It was all interactive and at one point I was put on trial for witch craft. I was of course found guilty and sentenced to hang. Fun stuff. After that little adventure we found this amazing restaurant. It was this little place where I had this great bean burger in a pita and corn on the cob. They let you choose how spicy you want it and they had these amazing sauces to cook them in. it was so good that I bought some of the sauce and we all plan on making the food when we get back.

2009-08-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

The Beatles are back!!

2009-08-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

2009-08-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

yellow submarine!

Liverpool (August 5th)

2009-08-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

Today we drove to Liverpool which was rad! It was a beautiful sunny and warm day. We were fortunate enough to meet up with Saries uncle who happens to be an ambassador for the city. “he is kind of a big deal” according to him and he was so much fun. He took us to the Beatle’s story museum which told the history of the Beatles and how they got together. It also gave information about their whole career and what happened after they split up. I was sooo happy to be here, the Beatles are amazing and this was one of my favorite days. Little did we know, but Sarie’s uncle used to be the booking manager for the Beatles. He was actually in New York with Paul McCartney last week! He got us in for free and hooked us up with cake and smoothies. He also gave us vip ambassador pins and we got some special privileges in the tour. He even was in some of the displays in the tour and narrated some of the self guided tour. Today I learned that john Lennon and Paul McCartney met when they were just 15 and started to play together. Also, I didn’t realize this but their actual recording career only lasted eight years! In those few years they had over 200 hit songs, many of which have been redone hundreds of times. In fact there are over 3,000 versions of the song “Yesterday.” After this museum we went over to the second newer part. It has only been open for about a month and it was mostly about John Lennon. It was about his life, his marriages and his children. I found out some cool facts about one of my favorite Beatles songs “Hey Jude.” It was written by Paul for John’s son Julian when john and his first wife got their divorce. The song was originally titled “Hey Jules” but it was changed later. We also walked over to Mathew Street where the Cavern (which is the pub that the Beatles got started at) is. We walked in and saw it and hung out for a bit. Liverpool is very proud of the fact that the Beatles started here. In fact, when they started to get popular they were resentful because they didn’t want the world to share their beloved band.
After the museum we thought we would be so funny if we bought Beatles wigs and glasses and walked around the town. We walked back into our hostel and nobody recognized us. it was hilarious. We wore them for the rest of the night and took really funny pictures. Im sad to be leaving Liverpool tomorrow morning and wish we had a few more days here.

Stratford (Aug 4th)

2009-08-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of our last week on the study abroad. We drove to Stratford upon Avon and it was a quaint little town. It was very small and unfortunately it was raining all day long. This is where Shakespeare is from and everything in the town was named after him. Our first stop was to his wife, Anne Hathaway’s cottage where she lived and raised shakespear's children. We snapped some pictures and then we went to shakespear’s home that he grew up in. it was restored recently but supposedly it was just like the original. It was interesting to walk through. After we walked through the town and came to the church where he is buried. We saw his tomb and took a few more pictures. It really was neat to be there just because Shakespeare is such an important person. He did so much for the English language. He was so influential and had such an impact on literature and writing in general. Later in the evening we went out to dinner and had some great dinner, but even better dessert. It was banana cheesecake and I was in heaven. That is where the good part of the day ended. After dinner we went to a Shakespeare play called a Winter’s Tale. It would have been better if I wasn’t so tired and if it wasn’t almost four hours long. It was very bizarre and frankly after the show I felt I had been dreaming for the last couple of hours. It was all a blur and I was pretty happy when it was over. When I looked around at the people in my group during the play I saw that 14 of the 26 people were asleep. However, even though the play wasn’t the best I still had a great day and enjoyed Stratford.

Preston England Temple

2009-08-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

On our way to York we were able to stop at the Preston England temple it was so beautiful and even though we couldn’t go inside it was amazing just being there. It was such a good feeling pulling up to it and being able to walk around outside. Here are some good pictures…

The London Eye

2009-08-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

Goodbye London (August 3)

2009-08-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

So today was my last day in London and I am really sad about it. My time here as been amazing and I have learned so much about this culture and also about the English language in general. I took my two finals today and did really well on both of them. I came into the classes nervous and to be honest, not really looking forward to the class work. Linguistics is not a topic that comes naturally to me and I knew very little about it. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do as well as I wanted to. However by the end of the class I feel like I really did learn so much. It has been a great learning experience to get out of my comfort zone and study something that I wouldn’t normally study. The topics turned out to be extremely fascinating to me and I feel like I was able to really take it all in. Outside of class I feel like I have learned a lot also. When I first got here I felt small and insecure, afraid to be on my own in such a large city. But by the end of the fourth week here I feel accomplished, like I can handle anything. I know my way around, I am confident in a large city by myself and even though I have realized that I prefer the country to the city I do think that it would be a good experience to live in a large city for a few years. I feel like I have been able to see so much in the small amount of time that I have been here. Looking back, I feel like I saw everything that I really wanted to see and then more.
Our last day here was a beautiful one. There was not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was perfect. I went for my last run in Hyde Park this morning and it was so rejuvenating. After class I came back and packed and then went shopping with Sarie. We bought a few last minute souvenirs and then we went over to Westminster Abbey for Evensong. Daily worship has taken place in Westminster for over 1,000 years. Evensong is a service performed each night that is mostly sung and follows very closely with the 1549 original Book of Common Prayer. Tonight the choir that sang was from Indianapolis and was a group of young boys. The music was really beautiful, especially when it echoed throughout the chapel. However it was really interesting to be able to go to the temple earlier this week and see the stark differences between the two churches. There is no comparison to the feeling that you get when in the celestial room, and it was definitely not the feeling that I felt during tonight’s service.
After evensong, all of my friends and I went back to my favorite vegetarian restaurant for one last dinner. I had the same exact thing as last time because it was so amazing. Then Kenzie, Sarie and I all went to ride the London Eye as the sun was setting. It was a perfect day for it. The city lights looked so cool and I loved being able to look across the city and recognize all of the places that we have been. We snapped some great pictures, had a ton of fun and then headed back to finish packing. I think it’s going to be a long night tonight but we have a long time to sleep on the bus tomorrow.
Off to Scotland we go!

2009-08-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

ABBEY ROAD BABY!

2009-08-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

My trip to London wouldn’t have been complete if I didn’t go to abbey road while here. It was very exciting. It took us about 45 minutes to get a good picture crossing it though…there were a few angry cars that didn’t like the fact that we were stopping traffic. But after a few shots I think we got it down…in fact we look just like the Beatles themselves…ha. We went up and took some pictures at the actual studio and then stood by the wall that is decorated in graffiti (kind of like a shrine to the Beatles.) It basically made my life.

Fun Sunday in London (Aug 2nd)

2009-08-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

Today was our last Sunday here and it was a little sad. The day itself was beautiful and sunny. We went to church and first time the tube was running normally so it only took us about 45 minutes to get to church. I am sad to be leaving that ward. Everyone shows so much hospitality and is so genuinely nice. It was nice to be in church in a place that is so culturally diverse. We taught the lesson in primary today and we talked about the temple. We had a tense moment however. We didn’t realize that the game we brought would cause such a commotion…but in the beginning of the lesson the kids were very opinionated about which stick figure they wanted. But don’t worry we got it all figured out and the lesson went really well. The presidency in primary was sad to see us go (I think they were mostly sad because they have to start teaching lessons again) but id like to believe that they will miss us. They sent us home with cake and a bunch of food it was great.

2009-08-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

the top picture is the statue mentioned in my blog below. the bottom picture is the area that they fire burnt.

Counting Down the Days in London (August 1)

2009-08-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

So my days in London are numbered and im getting kind of sad about it. I can’t believe I have been here for four weeks, it has flown by. Today I slept in a little bit and then went running. After that I went over to watch the changing of the guard (which if anyone ever has a choice to go see…don’t do it, it’s not worth it). I was supposed to meet up with my friends there but unfortunately that didn’t happen. I wasn’t about to waste a full day so I went out and did things on my own all day. My first stop was the Museum of London. It took me a while to get there but I managed. The museum itself was great. It was split up into four sections, one called London before London (which was about ancient civilizations), a second about Roman London, another about Medieval London, and the last exhibit was all about the London Fire. The first gallery was pretty cool; my favorite part was a woman skull that had facial reconstruction so we could see what she looked like. It was especially fascinating because the skull dated back to 3100 BC. The roman section had many cool artifacts also, but my favorite was the coins that they had on display. The medieval section was great too; it had a lot of history on the Black Death that reached Europe in1348. It was spread by fleas on rats but many English people of the time believed that it was a punishment from God. It killed over 50 million people in Europe alone and it usually was deadly within 48 hours of the first symptoms. This would have been an ugly and painful death, the side effects were numerous including puss covered sores, fever and vomiting blood. It is said that there were more dead bodies than people knew what to do with, and apparently the whole city smelled like rotting flesh. Isn’t that a great picture?
My favorite part of the museum was the exhibit on the Great Fire of London. I learned a lot there and it really interested me. I apologize but I am going to write a lot about it…it was one of the most famous disasters in world history. It started at a bakery in pudding lane on Sunday September 2, 1666. It destroyed an astonishing four-fifths of the city of London. At the time (just like with the Black Death) people believed that it was a punishment from God. In fact they had one picture at the museum that showed a statue of a fat boy. According to the commentary many people believed that the fire was caused by the sin of gluttony (eating too much). The statue is still standing today. It was not a huge surprise when it happened, London was common in London-there were at least six serious fires in the 1600s. This fire obviously was particularly bad. They do have recordings from diaries that wrote about the experience. Thomas Vincent said that “if at any time the sun peeped forth, it looked red like blood.” He also said that wooden scaffolding on St. Paul’s cathedral caught on fire and the lead on the roof melted causing the stones to fly like grenades. The fire itself lasted 5 days and spread wildly because of the strong wind. It was eventually put out because the wind died down and the people of London had torn down houses to create a gap. The city destroyed thousands of homes and left millions without a place to live. The city took nearly 50 years to rebuild and St. Paul’s cathedral wasn’t completed until 1711. I can’t even imagine how terrifying that must have been!
After the museum I took the tube to Bakers Street where I found a small market. I walked around, tried a couple of different foods and then decided to go to dinner. I found this little vegetarian restaurant where I kid you not I had the best food I have ever had in my entire life. I had this butternut squash pie or something…it had red onions, squash, goat cheese, rosemary, zucchini and a balsamic glaze. It was topped off with toasted bread crumbs. It was soooooo good. I know I sound like a dork but this kind of stuff is my life haha. For desert I splurged and had a toffee bread pudding. It must have been covered in butter or something because it was so good. It was definitely worth it. In fact, it was all so good that I asked them for the recipes and they are going to email them to me. Im weird I know.

Harrods

2009-07-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

just happened to run into the boyfriend while out to dinner...

The Chocolate Bar (July 31st)

2009-07-31T14:47:00.000-07:00

It felt good to be on my own today in the city. I didn’t feel like a tourist and I felt really accomplished that I was able to navigate around on the tube and the streets without getting lost. I remember when I first got here I was so overwhelmed and I didn’t think that I would be able to ever figure this city out. However, now I feel totally confident on my own here.
Later in the night I met up with the rest of the group and we went to Harrods where we had dessert at a chocolate bar. It was chocolate fondue that was AMAZING. We all got really hyper from the chocolate and thought it would be funny to make chocolate mustaches with the milk chocolate. I think people were wondering if we were ok. After we wanted to shop around Harrods but we quickly figured out that we couldn’t afford it. In fact Sarah was brilliant when she noticed that only people who sell nuclear bombs can afford to shop there. Go there and you will understand what im talking about…. Now we are back home and getting ready for another jam-packed day tomorrow! Yay!

London Aquarium (July 31st)

2009-07-31T14:34:00.000-07:00

After the temple we went back home and I went to the London Aquarium. I ended up going by myself but I still really enjoyed it. I took my time and saw sharks, sting rays and jelly fish. The best was the sea horses I loved them!!! I learned that they have no real stomachs and can eat up to 17 times a day!! The shark tank was also rad. I learned a few interesting facts while I was there too, I learned that there are 460 different types of sharks and that there are 35 different types in Britain alone. I also learned that sharks cannot breathe if they are not moving through the water. If a shark does not swim for ten minutes it will suffocate. They had several different types in this aquarium but the most interesting to me was the tiger shark. I learned that while most sharks can have up to 8 pups each pregnancy, tiger sharks can only have two. They have two uteruses and each one will have four or five babies in them, however they eat each other in the wombs. Only the one strongest will survive. Also I thought it was crazy to learn that tiger sharks will loose about 20,000 teeth in their lifetimes! Something else cool about sharks, they can sense electrical currents. So even though there eyesight isn’t the best they can sense a human heart beat and know where they are and how close they are. Finally, my last cool fact about sharks is that their skin is so rough that it was commonly used as sand paper. The aquarium was awesome and I loved learning about all of the different species. It was all fascinating to me and it surprised me how little we still know about the ocean and the creatures living in it. One statistic said that more people have been to space than to the deep sea realm.

London Temple! (July 31st)

2009-07-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

Today was absolutely amazing! It was one of the best days here by far! Today we got up early and seven of us went to the London Temple. It took us about an hour and a half to get there but it was so worth it. It felt so good to be there. It was a beautiful day and the temple grounds were s amazing. We were all in awe and took a thousand pictures. All of the workers were so happy that we were there and so genuinely nice. Three of us did an endowment session and we were three of the five people there. It was different that anything I have ever experienced in the temple and I really enjoyed it. The temple was stunning inside. It will definitely be one of the most memorable temple experiences that I have experienced. It was a very peaceful morning, something that I needed today. I met some very neat people and will not forget some of the conversations that I had.

2009-07-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

After the cathedral we went to this amazing little lunch place and it was a lot like the restaurant that I want to open. It was all really healthy but delicious food. The funny thing was is that this whole trip it’s been a running joke to draw mustaches on our fingers and hold them up on our face…and while we were eating lunch we noticed that the waitress had a tattoo of a mustache on her finger! So we had to get pictures with it! So funny! Once we got back on the bus we were inspired to draw our own mustaches again and we all had themed ones. I was the sexy Spaniard, Jayci had the Mexi-stash, Jenny was the old man with nose hair, Sarah was the rocker, and Mandie was Hitler. It made the two hour bus ride go by faster.
Our second stop was Battle which was the site of the Norman invasion in 1066. This was the infamous battle between William the Conqueror of Normandy and the English. It was a bloody battle in which about 7000 people were killed. The Normans prevailed and this would change the Anglican community forever. Also on this site was an Abby and we learned all about the Monks that lived there until they were forced to leave when Henry the VIII broke off from the Catholic Church. It was all interesting. After that we came home on the bus and planned all of our fun activities that we are all going to do together when we get back to Utah. We want to make sure we remain good friends. When we got back I went for a quick run and then we did some abs workouts.

fun on the bus

2009-07-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

we were inspired...

2009-07-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here we are bored at he chapel.. and then here is the restaruant and the waitresses tattoo!

Day Trip to Canterbury and Battle (July 30)

2009-07-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today we took a day trip to Canterbury and Battle. A few of us thought it would be really cool to all match so we wore our "I love London" shirts and stretch pants. We looked fabulous.

The first stop in Canterbury was Canterbury Cathedral. This was beautiful but honestly I have seen a lot of cathedrals over the last few weeks and they are all starting to blend together. There were a few interesting things about it though. There was a compass in the middle of the floor in the chapel. It was called the compass rose and it is the symbol of worldwide Anglican Communion. In the center of it is a Greek quote that translates to read “the truth will make you free.” Also they had a candle burning in the middle of the floor which was a shrine to St. Thomas of Canterbury (the original shrine was destroyed by Henry VIII.

Engrish (july 29)

2009-07-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

This picture is an example of what we learned in class yesterday. we learned that often english in the media is used because it is very popular, however many times in foreign countries they do not even know what they are saying...

2009-07-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

mama mia, here i go again...

Peter Pan and Mama Mia (July 28)

2009-07-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

So today was so great. i think each day gets better and better. im a little sad that im leaving London in one week. the only downside about today is that im recovering from a little cold that ive had for the last few days but that didnt slow me down. In class today i presented my powerpoint on Indian English and that went really well. After class we were able to go see the play Peter Pan in kensington Gardens. this was so awesome. it was in a giant dome and the set was amazing. also, something funny happened to us while we were there. i was in line paying for some food and i accidently ran into someone. not thinking anything of it i went on with my business and then when i went back to my friends they told me to turn around and look at who i just bumped into...it was none other than Meg Ryan... i couldnt believe it. we were all staring at here, it was a little embarassing. we were definately star struck. my friend Kenzie went up and asked if we could get a picture with her and she said no..actually she said "no im off duty" and waved her hand at us. i feel bad she probably gets that a lot. then we went into the play and she was sitting on our same row just a few seats down so we snuck a few pictures of her. she was there with her daughter..pretty cool.
After peter pan a few of us went out to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant called Food for Thought. it was sooooooooo good. it gave you so much food and it was so healthy and yummy. i was in heaven. then Kenzie and i went to Mama Mia!! i was so excited for this and it definately lived up to my expectations. the only downside of it was that the two ladies next to me were really confused and thought that i paid $100 to see them sing and dance... kind of annoying. but it was still worth it...drunk off key ladies and all.

2009-07-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

We LOVE LONDON

FHE July 27th

2009-07-27T22:28:00.001-07:00

For FHE we thought it would be funny to get all dressed up and take “family” portraits together. So that is exactly what we did. Will and Tiare were the parents and the rest of us were the children. I think our pictures turned out quite well what do you think?

2009-07-27T22:23:00.000-07:00

just a little pre match good luck...and then there i am cheering him on from my special box seat with his parents...

2009-07-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

this is where the players and their families have tea and strawberries and cream

2009-07-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Centre Court!!

2009-07-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

ok...so maybe im a stalker...

2009-07-27T14:34:00.001-07:00

Federer sat in this chair!!

2009-07-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

sitting in the press room, and seeing the grass

Wimbledon (July 27)

2009-07-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

Today Kenzie, Mandie and I went to see Wimbledon. It was so exciting, but it made me miss my family. I am mad that we missed the tournament by just a few days when we came out here. That would have been a once in a lifetime opportunity but oh well. We went on a tour of the grounds and we learned a lot of cool things. It was started in 1921 but finished in 1922. We learned that the grass is always 8 mm long. We also learned that they have a huge fox problem. I guess the foxes come in and r uin the courts so to prevent that from happening they have 24 hour guards watching over the courts. We went to see the press room where all of the athletes go for interviews after matches. An interesting fact about this is that the journalists request who they want to interview and if the athletes don’t show up they can be fined. This is not a Wimbledon rule but rather a rule that applies at every major tournament. For example, when one athlete didn’t show up to the French Open he got fined $40,000. That was a big mistake.
The Wimbledon tennis club has about 100 honorary members and about 400 full time life members. However there are never more than 500 members at anytime. This is a very prestigious club obviously and to be invited to join you must be invited by one member, seconded by another, and then supported by three more members. The easiest way however is to win the championship… no big deal right? Money does not play an important role in the membership which I thought was cool. We learned that it only costs about 100 pounds a year. So basically you could be the richest person in the world and still not be able to be a member of this tennis club.
Also, at Wimbledon there is no advertising allowed. In fact they have what is called “suppliers” which are companies that actually pay the tennis club to be a supplier. A few well known suppliers are Rolex and Evian to name a few. They supply the tennis club with product and pay them 25 million pounds!! But I guess it is worth it.
There are about 50,000 seats in the stadiums. We were able to walk all around them and we were even able to go down to center court. While we were in there they opened the roof up for us it was pretty neat. The grass was being reseeded so it was covered. We also walked into the area that the players enter and then to the area where (according to tradition) go with their families to have tea and strawberries and cream. Basically after today I decided that Roger Federer doesn’t know it yet but I will be his future (next) wife. It was a great experience!!

one by one down we come

2009-07-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

2009-07-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

Jane Austen's House

2009-07-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

Our final stop of this trip was Jane Austen’s House. This was pretty interesting but we were all pretty worn out. We walked around the house, took a few pictures and then we were on our way back to London.

Stonehenge

2009-07-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

After that adventure we went to Stonehenge. This was really great. You see so many pictures of this in your life but how many people actually get to go see it. 7-8,000 years ago the area where Stonehenge is was an area of pines and hazel woodland. They know this from evidence from several Mesolithic pits discovered in the late 1960s. The monument itself is said to be about 5,000 years old. Of course nobody knows for sure its purpose or how it got there but there were some pretty interesting suggestions that we learned about. Some believed that it is the work of aliens; others believe that the devil himself built the monument. And others believe that the stones have special healing powers. It was all very interesting. My favorite thing about it is that it was built to line up exactly with the winter and summer solstices. So on the shortest and longest day of the year the sun will rise and set exactly over the center stone.

more adventure land

2009-07-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Best Play Ground Ever!

2009-07-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

We then drove to the Wilton house which is where they filmed a lot of Pride and Prejudice. The house was closed but we were able to walk around the grounds and also play on the play ground. They had the coolest play ground I have ever seen. I felt like a little kid again and it was great! We took so many pictures. It had one of the largest slides I have ever seen in my life and when you went down it it rocketed you out from the bottom. I thought it was a little dangerous for kids… there were also these spinny things that you walk across. They reminded me of that show wipeout. I thought it would be funny to run across them… bad idea. I hope you enjoy this video…

Salisbury Cathedral

2009-07-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

The next morning we walked to the Salisbury cathedral. We got there really early before it opened and walked around it. It was such a gorgeous morning and it was really peaceful. We walked around and took some pictures then came back and checked out of our hostel.

Another Castle...

2009-07-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

in these pictures i found a little kids door that was just my size, and in the other one i am lifting the draw bridge.

On the way we stoped at one more castle that was built by the same man as the Cardiff castle. This one was another home that belonged to that family. It was smaller but also very cool.

Out Door Museum

2009-07-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

After the castle we went to an outdoor museum that was a mock up of an old town. I liked this because I have a lot of ancestors from here and it was interesting to see what it would have most likely been like for them. It was really beautiful and sometimes I can see myself living in a small country town like this. They had houses and gardens and barns. It was relaxing just to walk around it. That night we drove to Salisbury which is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Pictures do not do it justice. It was rolling hills with grass and wheat and trees everywhere. Ahh I want to live there. We stayed there for the night and went to a yummy Thai place for dinner.

2009-07-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

That night we got to our hostel in Wales. This was a very cool hostel. It had neon lighting everywhere and was painted all sorts of cool colors. It was right next to a big river and park which were perfect for running in the morning. The night we were there we met up with another study abroad group from BYU that was studying there in Wales. It was fun, we got to know each other and also learned to sing a welsh song together.

Cardiff Castle

2009-07-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

The next morning we all went to Cardiff Castle. This castle was built by John Bute. It was used as a hose and while it was built in the 18th century, its décor was meant to represent a much earlier medieval time period. In fact, many of the rooms were decorated in Middle Eastern styles. The first room that we went in was the men’s smoke room. This is the room that they would go to after dinner each night to smoke. The women were not allowed in the room. Outside of the room they had a mask of the devil above the door, which was supposed to scare the women away. The next room was the day time nursery. This is where the children would go during the day to learn and play. One thing that I thought was very cool about this room was the paintings on the wall. All across the room were painted characters, and each character represented a different nursery rhyme. There was sleeping beauty, beauty and the beast, the little read ridding hood, and also robin hood to name a few. We also saw the bedrooms, master bathroom, the Arab room (which was a room where the women went after dinner) and also the loft upstairs on the roof. The gold on the wall in the Arab room was made with 22 karat gold. The house was sold to the state in 1947 and ever since then has been open to the public.

The Roman Baths

2009-07-25T12:34:00.001-07:00

The next stop was the roman baths. This was an ancient temple built around 43 AD. However, it wasn’t discovered until the 19th century. It was one of the only natural hot springs in all of Europe (?) and to the Romans it was sacred and associated with the God Minerva. The spring pours out a quarter of a million liters a day. The few things I thought were most interesting from this site were small things that archeologists have recovered such as jewelry, makeup and pottery. Also, a golden statue of the head of Minerva was discovered in the 1700s when a sewer was being built. It appears that the head was hacked off from the rest of the statue, possibly by Christians or barbarians. Also, the Romans used to write written curses to the Gods. These were letters complaining to the Gods, and many of them were asking the Gods to do something bad to people who had wronged them. They had a few examples of them, and personally a lot of them were very petty. For example, one man wrote a note complaining about a man who stole one of his gloves. In the note he wished for the man to “lose his eyes and mind.” Pretty bizarre. Finally, one of the coolest architectural aspects was the floors of the building. They were elevated so that the steam from the hot spring would circulate below the floor. This would heat the floor.

2009-07-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

Windsor Castle

2009-07-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

Our first stop of our weekend outing was Windsor Castle. This might have been my favorite site so far from the entire trip. I was super tired from only sleeping about 3 hours the night before and didn’t realize what I was going to see but when I got there I got really excited. Windsor Castle was first built as a military fortress and when you look at its surroundings you can tell that its location was very strategically planned out (with it being on top of a hill.) Also, i've been wondering why every castle has windows with small narrow slits in them. I learned that they are wider on the inside of the castle and this is because people with arrows or guns can maneuver more easily on the wider side and can be blocked by return fire. We learned that it has been housing royalty for over 1,000 years! It was very very large, apparently it was about the size of 268 tennis courts! Our first stop once inside the grounds was St. George’s Chapel. It was finished in 1475 under King Henry VIII and its architecture is in the late gothic style. The highlights in here were the 24 knights carved into the sides of the chapel. This was to show the current knights and it had their names, their colors, their shields etc. they all had a sword that was half way out of its strap, symbolizing their readiness to fight and defend the crown. Each one was different and they were very detailed. Once a knight died his knight was removed from the chapel and in its place would be an empty space waiting to be filled. I snuck a picture of Prince William’s knight. Another highlight was a small box that was built up above the altar. This was built specifically for Catherine of Aragon. It was her own private worshiping box, where she could over look the ceremonies in solitude. Finally, in the chapel there were many famous people buried including the infamous Henry VIII himself. I tried to sneak a picture of his grave but it didn’t turn out very well. Another famous person buried there was Henry’s wife (well one of them) Jayne Seymour.
After the chapel we walked around outside for a while. We noticed that the queen was not there that day because of the specific flag that was flying on top of the castle. The different flags are all the public can know as to whether or not the queen is present. We then went to see Queen Mary’s Dollhouse. This was amazing! I tried to sneak some pictures so you all could see it but they didn’t turn out very well. This house was amazing! It was all built to correct proportions and it even had electricity, plumbing, and a working vacuum! Why don’t they make these anymore? Finally, after this we saw the state apartments. This is the part of the castle that the queen doesn’t live in and is open to the public. There were bedrooms, dining halls, and art rooms. It was absolutely amazing. One room was very large and dedicated to all of the knights. They each had a shield on the ceiling. If they were forced to leave dishonorably their shield was removed and in its place was a white shield (so everyone would know what happened.) guess you just couldn’t disappear and forget your mistakes… We also saw the room where each knight was knighted. Finally we saw the room where the great fire of 1992 started. This fire did a lot of damage but it was all rebuilt. In one room there was damage to the walls and ceiling but the art work was preserved. Also in that room, instead of replacing the wood floor which was covered in black ashes, they simply removed each tile and turned it upside down.

Wednesday July 22

2009-07-22T17:18:00.001-07:00

Today was a fun relaxed day. I slept in a little late so I only did a couple of miles this morning for my run. However it was a really beautiful morning and it felt really rejuvenating. After we had class and it was really interesting today. In my first class we learned about the history of the bible and its connection to the development of the English language. There were eight versions of the Bible and many of them were band because the monarch and the Catholic Church did not want them written in English. Many people sacrificed a lot for the English language. We learned that over 1000 people were burned at the stake between 1400 and 1557 for translating, reading or even owning a bible in English. Crazy! In my next class we learned about Gender differences in speaking English. This was really really funny. It really amuses me how different girls and boys can be. One interesting fact, we learned that it is harder it is harder to recognize/identify a female voice than a male voice.
After class we went and tried to get show tickets for tonight but the shows we wanted to see were sold out for the rest of the week. So we booked Mama Mia and the Lion King for next week. Then we did a little shopping and I found a few really cute outfits. Later tonight we went on the “Blood and Tears Walk” which was a tour of the backstreets of London. It told us stories about serial killers, hangings, exorcisms, and grave snatchers (all that fun jazz). It was a lot of fun. Before we went we stopped at Snog, our new favorite frozen yogurt joint. On the tube on the way there however we had a few really interesting stories… lets just say snogging gets us in trouble..and don’t talk to strangers late at night on the tube… (the pictures show us with our cool tour guide and also us terrified after our incident on the tube)

Globe Theatre (july 21)

2009-07-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

After this we went to Shakespeare’s globe theatre and saw the play “As You Like It.” I’m not going to lie this was not my favorite thing thus far on the trip. First of all, it was outside, we had to stand for all three hours, and it was raining. Also, since I am short I had a very hard time seeing the stage, and Shakespeare isn’t necessarily the easiest to understand. Finally to top of the horribleness of this play, the lady behind me got sick and puked something chocolate all over the place. Needless to say at intermission I left early and decided to do my own thing.
Sarie and I walked over to see Big Ben and then we went in to attend a session of Parliament. This was the last of this session of Parliament. After tonight they have a recess until the middle of October. While I didn’t really understand a lot of it, it was still really interesting to watch. I thought it was funny that some of them still wore those funny white wigs… I enjoyed being there and am glad that I got to experience that. Now I am back at my flat trying to finish up some homework…

Falconry (July 21)

2009-07-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

Today class was nice because it was only half as long as usual. I really do love class but three hours is way to long to be sitting in a classroom…especially when you are in a foreign country that you want to explore and experience. Today we learned about Shakespeare and all of the words that he invented. We also learned about Jamaican patwacreolenglish. I learned a few words, two of my favorites were: “bunaununus” which means “delightful” and “grabalishos” which means “greedy.” After class we went to the British Library where we watched a presentation on Falconry. Falconry was a way of hunting before guns. It was also a sport for many and a sign of status. They showed us a few birds of prey and then told me about how much each one would have cost during the time of king Henry VIII (which ranged from 100,000-250,000 pounds!) we also learned about the different ages that you could purchase and train a bird. The two that I remember were the passage falcon which was the most common. This type of falcon was still young but had branched out and already knew how to hunt. They were not too difficult to train. The most desirable type of bird however was the “haggard” falcon which was older. It was mature (3-5 years old) and difficult to train. Also the females were more valuable because they were larger. Females were called falcon gentile and males were called teasel (?) which was a French word meaning less than 1/3 the size. Another interesting fact about these amazing birds is that they have 2 inch long talons, and if that’s not scary enough, they have the strength of 5 times the average human grip. Needless to say they could easily grasp and slice open their prey. Finally, a little bit about the clothing. The gloves worn by the trainers were only designed for the left hand. This is because the left hand was considered the evil hand, and the right hand was the holy hand. It was disgraceful to use the holy hand to hold the bird of prey. Also, the birds wore hoods to blind them. Now while this might seem cruel, it was all in the best interest of the bird. The hood would completely shut out the light which would calm the bird down. We learned that stress and shock will almost always kill a bird. Before the hoods were introduced in the 4th century A.D. they used to suture their eyes shut and at the end of every week for four weeks they would cut one of the stitches off. I’m not sure why they did this but I thought it was interesting.

FHE July 20

2009-07-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

After Hampton Court we went back home, grabbed some dinner and then headed over to the BYU London Center for a fireside. It was given by the old stake president of this area. He talked to us about growing up in London during the Second World War. He had a lot of fascinating stories. He told us about his memory of being evacuated from the city, also about where they would have to hide when there was a bomb threat. They had a bomb shelter in their backyard but for those that didn’t have that “luxury” they often retreated to the underground or even crypts of churches. He remembers some nights where they would hear the siren in the middle of the night and have less than ten minutes to get the whole family outside to the shelter. Sometimes they would be down there for over a day at a time. He recalls that the noise of the bombers flying over them was nerve racking and something that he could not even describe to us. Something else that he talked to us about that I just couldn’t believe were the food rations that they enforced back then. During the war food was hard to come by, all of the staples like bread, butter, cheese and milk all were rationed. One rule that blew me away is the rationing of eggs. Every adult in London was allowed ONE egg every TWO months. I can’t even imagine…
He also told us about the rules at night. No visible light was allowed to be seen from houses at night. He recalls having large thick black curtains in his house as well as the houses in his neighborhood. The reason for this is that it made the city harder to detect from the air. He said that there were police that would walk around at night and look for houses that were showing light. But apparently this didn’t work as well as they thought it would because planes looking to attack found other ways around this. They would simply wait for a clear night when the moon was bright, and find the Thames River and follow its path until they ran into the city. If there was a threat of attack the way of communication was through the churches. This is because it was guaranteed that every town in England would have at least one church. So during the war years, it was illegal to ring the bells of the church. If there was an attack they would sound the bells and the noise would ring from town to town. That was their form of a siren. I can’t even fathom living in a time where this was such a real threat.

I want to end today’s blog with a funny joke that he told. It is about Winston Churchill and his drinking days. It is a conversation between Churchill and a lady he met on the bus after left a bar one evening.

Lady on the bus: Mr. Churchill, I believe you are drunk.
WC: Well miss I believe you are ugly, and the reality of it is, is I will be sober tomorrow…
Lady on the bus: (upset) Mr. Churchill if you were my husband I would poison your coffee.
WC: Well if I were your husband I’d drink it…

2009-07-20T23:29:00.001-07:00

Finally, after that we saw the king’s tennis courts which were are still being played on. They are a little different than the tennis courts we see today. My favorite part of the palace however was the gardens. They were absolutely amazing. I can’t believe all the work that must go into the upkeep of the grounds. I took so many pictures just because I couldn’t believe how beautiful it all was. It’s something that you just have to see in person because the pictures do not do it justice.

Hampton Court (July 20)

2009-07-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

We also saw the Chapel Royal which was Henry VIII’s personal church for worship. Rumor has it that the heart of his third wife Jane is buried in the chapel. She died from complications of child birth. Next to the church (ironically) was the winery.They did have their own grapes here; in fact they still have the largest and oldest grape vine in the world (over 230 years old!)

Hampton Court (July 20)

2009-07-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

We then went to look at the palace kitchens. As many know, the kitchen is always my favorite part of any home. These were no exception. They were several rooms big. The most common dish prepared (and still commonly prepared today) is the meat pie. They had a room for the butchering of the meat, a room for cooking the meat, one for making the pastry dough, and then a large dinning room.

2009-07-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

After that we went to the procession for the wedding between King Henry VIII and his 6th wife Kathryn. It was a reenactment and we all stood around and cheered them on and listened to them as they addressed the crowd. Some of the actors got really into it but I enjoyed it.We then went to look at the palace kitchens. As many know, the kitchen is always my favorite part of any home. These were no exception. They were several rooms big. The most common dish prepared (and still commonly prepared today) is the meat pie. They had a room for the butchering of the meat, a room for cooking the meat, one for making the pastry dough, and then a large dinning room.

2009-07-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

Also, the men’s’ outfits were very interesting as well. As you can imagine whenever you see a man in tights it’s odd but I learned the significance behind it. The most attractive part of the man, and the part that women always looked at first, were the calves. Men would always show them off when trying to impress the women. Large claves were a sign of masculinity and power. Also the large puffy sleeves that they wore were to make them look larger in statue which was also considered a sign of wealth.

Hampton Court (July 20)

2009-07-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today we took a day trip out to Hampton Court Palace. This was a palace where King Henry VIII would often vacation to. It is a huge palace that has over 60 acres of beautiful gardens which run alongside the River Thames. When we first got there a my friend Tiara and I went to Mary II’s apartments where we learned about the clothing that was worn during that time period. It was a live re-enactment and they had an example for the women and for the men. A few of the more interesting facts that I remember were that the women had to have their hair up and covered. They believed that the bible directed them to do so and if they were to wear their hair down they were considered “mad.” Also, they never washed their dresses. The only part that they would wash was the undergarments or the linens. Often if they were to get dirty they would use bread to clean the stains. Bread worked especially well on oil stains.

July 19th

2009-07-19T11:45:00.001-07:00

Today was a typical Sunday, woke up traveled an hour and a half to church, played with the primary kids (one girl peed her pants twice in 20 minutes) and then after church came home. Once home I hung out at the flat for a few hours and then later in the night Sarie and I went over to Hyde Park to the Speakers Corner. This is a gathering where everyone is welcome to come and voice their opinion about things that they are passionate about. There are a few rules to keep it under control however. I thought it was so interesting. There was a very large turnout and there were so many things being talked about (ranging from homosexuality, religion, and even transvestites’ rights). Sarie and I even got involved. It was so funny we found a few guys that weren’t doing any arguing at all, all they were doing was holding up signs that said “free hugs.” We went over and gave them a hug and were talking to them for a bit. One thing led to the next and before we knew it we were holding the signs as hundreds of people came to give us hugs. It was so awesome. Everyone asked why we were doing it and we just said just to be nice. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It just goes to show that no matter what language you speak, what religion you belong to, what nationality you are; a hug generally means the same thing across the world. It is a sign of kindness and it was fun to be a part of that tonight.

2009-07-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

2009-07-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame, and do you think i have enough pictures of the eiffel tower??

2009-07-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

top: view from the top of the arc de triumph

midde: cute parents

bottom: venus de milo at the louvre

2009-07-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

Top: mona lisa
Middle: us in front of the Louvre

Bottom: paris sunset

2009-07-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

top: our first crepes in paris

2009-07-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Eiffel Tower!!!

2009-07-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

top: Le Louvre!!

middle: the chunnel on the way over

bottom: we were so excited when we got our tickets!

PARIS

2009-07-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

PARIS!!!!! So I have a lot to update everyone on. We had a free weekend this week so five of us decided to go over to Paris for a few days. Wednesday morning we all got up early and headed off to the train station. We took the Chunnel under the English Channel over to France. We were all so excited to be there it was a little embarrassing. It is interesting to me that I felt so safe in London and in Paris I almost immediately felt more vulnerable. Im sure it was the language barrier and the fact that none of us spoke any French but still I didn’t feel entirely safe. We got lost quite a bit too. The metro was difficult for us to understand and we were a little frustrated with it. As soon as we got there we dropped our bags off at our hotel and decided to go explore the city. Without even asking we all just started walking towards the Eiffel Tower. It was a beautiful day out and we were all just so ecstatic to be there. We stopped for lunch at a café on the way and the food was NOT good. However, they did give us free dessert which was ok…I think it is funny because I have heard so many stories about how the French are so rude to the English so when they gave us the dessert someone in our group commented saying “and I thought the French were supposed to be rude…” They were probably nice to us because we were attempting (might I add pathetically) to speak French. After lunch we kept walking towards the Eiffel Tower. I don’t think any of us realized how far it was but it took a few hours. We finally got there and we were all like little kids on Christmas. We climbed the first two parts of it and then took the elevator to the top. We got really lucky because the weather was unbelievable. We were up there as the sun was beginning to set. We got so hyper at the top and im sure everyone was more than a little annoyed with us. After we got down we all took a short nap underneath the tower. It was getting dark so we decided to walk back towards the hotel. We found some authentic crepes along the way that were AMAZING. This started my binge on desserts and fattening French food for the weekend. The first day was probably the perfect day in Paris. Well almost everything was perfect except our tiny hotel room. It was nice but about the size of my closet.
On the second day I was really excited because my parents flew to Paris to see me! I was so happy to see them. We spend the day together going to the Louvre which was amazing to me because I am kind of an art history freak. Needless to say I loved the museum but it was still a little overwhelming. It is impossible to see it all in one day so I found a few sections that I had to see and we called it a day. After we went shopping and got some gelato. After I went back to hang out with my parents and we went to dinner. Later we met up with the gang at the top of the Arc de Triumph just in time to see a dazzling sunset. There was a storm coming in so behind the Eiffel tower there were lightening strikes every so often. We were having a hay day taking pictures! Then we tried to get back to our hotel which proved to be a much more difficult task than we had imagined. We got lost in the metro (again) with no one speaking English. Everyone was a little sketchy and we almost got pick-pocketed by a few ten year old boys. After about an hour we finally made it back and passed out in our beds.
Day three: we met up with my parents again and we went to Notre Dam. What an amazing building. I was blown away. After we went to Sacre Coeur on top of a hill that looked out over all of Paris. It was a beautiful area with art venders and cafes all around. We shopped and had some (disgusting) lunch. I don’t understand how the French can stand to eat flavorless, rock-hard bread, loaded with cheese… I was NOT happy with the food there. Everything was very plain and tasteless. That night I went back to my parent’s hotel and went to dinner and to a jazz concert. It was very relaxing. But as soon as our Paris adventures started they were over. Coming home was sad but at the same time we were still going back to London….so it wasn’t that sad. Now we are home and tonight we are going to go to Harry potter. Im excited!

2009-07-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

wicked!!!! the bottom picture is all of our "excited poses" we know we are weird... mandy makes farting noises with her arm pits and i pick my nose...

july 14

2009-07-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

the first part of yesterday was pretty standard...a little bit borning. i got up early to run and then we had class for 3 and a half hours. class was interesting though and i learned about IPA and transcriptions. i also learned how to say a few tings in mid ulster english : "have any bizz?" this means do you have any news? i also learned that when they use "be" and "to" together it means "must. (i be to go to the store".
After class everyone came back to the flats and we worked on homework ALL day. we wanetd to get all caught up before Paris so we didnt have to stress. so it was a beautiful day out side and we were stuck inside all day. a little depressing. but i got a lot done. but all that was ok because last night i got to see WICKED! i had already seen it in NY so i was curious to see how they would compare. i loved it. i will admit the singing was better in NY but the acting and set up was better here. it was amazing! i love it sooo much! ahhh best night of my life.
Now i am off to Paris bright and early!

2009-07-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

My first snog...

2009-07-14T05:43:00.000-07:00

top: Snog

middle and bottom: our FHE group

2009-07-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

top: building that houses the crown jewels

middle: the govenours house

bottom: the word "iane" carved in the wall (see my blog below)

2009-07-14T05:22:00.001-07:00

top: outside view of the tower of london

middle: one of the guards that i mentioned in my blog

bottom: cool view of white tower

2009-07-14T00:55:00.000-07:00

top: the graffiti dedicated to the Dudley family

next: more grafiti from the earl opf arundel

next: the church where 1500 people are burried including anne boleyn

last: the sculpture dedicated to those that were killled

2009-07-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

top: the ravens on the grounds

middle: another white tower pic

3: another guard pic

2009-07-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

top: this is the old wall that used to separate the tower from the roman city. it was so close to the white tower. this is when it was first built by the normans.

middle: the white tower

Bottom: the guards

2009-07-14T00:28:00.001-07:00

top: picture in front of the Lower Bridge.

Next two: im not sure...i guess we thought we were really funny

July 13th

2009-07-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

Today I got up early and went running. I ran through Kensington gardens and Hyde Park, it was a beautiful morning. I did 12 miles and it felt really good. After running I came home and then we all went to class. I actually am really glad I am doing this program because it does not come naturally to me and it is a challenge, but I enjoy it. I am really interested in it and I like that it gets me out of my comfort zone. Just learning about English and seeing everyone else speak other languages has inspired me to learn another language. When I get home I really want to work on my Spanish. I already know quite a bit but I know that if I really put effort into it I could speak it well. Anyways in class we learned about two different varieties of English today, we learned about the R.P. standard British which is the “posh” English spoken by only two percent of the population and then also about Cockney English (which is the uneducated sounding variety.) Also we learned about ancient writing systems such as Ireland’s ogham and I learned how to write my name in their “letters.”
After class we went to the tower of London!! I was sooo excited for this because I have been reading up on it and I am fascinated with all of the history of the tower. It definitely lived up to my expectations. I took sooo many notes today so this might be a really long post but I just think it is soo exciting. Call me a nerd. I like touring things by myself rather than in groups so I went off by myself and bought an audio tour guide to walk me though the grounds. It started off in the White tower which was 1000 years old. They called it the white tower because every year they would scrub it so it remained white. It is no longer white but I can only imagine what it looked like back then. The tower was designed and built by the Normans to intimidate the Londoners and remind them of their power. It was built right next to the roman city and in fact you can see the remains of a wall that was the actual boarder of the city when the tower was built. It was only about 20 feet away from the tower. It was also in the white tower that the tower of London housed its first prisoner (Bishop Flambard). He was detained at the third level but actually escaped by first getting his guards drunk and then climbing out of the window down a rope.
There were also Raven cages and big black ravens all around the tower. I learned that nobody knows when they first got there but it was during the reign of Charles II that he decided that if the ravens left the white tower would fall and bad things would happen to the city. So ever since then they have always kept six ravens within the tower walls.
I also saw a sculpture that was placed over the towers execution site. Surprisingly only a few people were actually executed in the tower grounds. It was considered a privilege. Most prisoners were killed outside the tower walls in front of a large crowd. Only a select few were privileged to be executed inside the tower. One of them was the infamous Anne Boleyn who was beheaded at this site on the 19th of May 1536. her body is buried in the chapel next to the grass (along with king Henry’s VIII last wife Kathryn and also Miss Jane Grey.) there are about 1500 people buried in the small chapel that still is a running church today.
After I walked up into the prisoner tower. This was a little eerie. There were inscriptions of prisoners, graffiti that many of the imprisoned scraped on the walls with sticks. One that stood out to me was by Earl of Arundel 1587, and it said “the more suffering for Christ the more glory with Christ in the next life.” Also I saw the engraving of the word “IANE” which probably meant “Jane.” From my book that I am reading this is supposedly Jane Grey’s husband writing this on the wall. Jane Grey was unfortunate enough to inherit the throne for 9 days before she was beheaded. She was only 16 years old. There was also an etching that was made in memorial of her family, the Dudley family.
Outside of this tower is the Queen’s house where the Governor lives. It is the only surviving wood/Tudor house in London (nothing else survived the fire.) After this I went into the bloody tower which actually used to be named the garden tower. It was here that supposedly the murder of the two young princes took place. King Edward the IV were their father and when he died they were both first in line for the crown (which made them very vulnerable.) It was in this tower that the two boys were last seen. Nobody knows for sure what happened to them but many believe that they were murdered. In 16744 during a renovation two skeletons of young boys were found buried in the walls of the tower.
Finally I was able to see the crown jewels. While waiting in line I saw video footage of Queen Elizabeth coronation which was the first to be broadcasted by television. The specific crown that she wore is only worn at the coronation so it hasn’t been worn since 1957 (?). Something else that really caught my eye was the first star of Africa which is the worlds largest diamond…I think they said it was 57 carrots? I don’t remember but it was AMAZING! The doors that led into the area that housed all of the crown jewels as well as other things weighted 2 tons each! Talk about security measures. I also saw other interesting objects like the ampulla which is an eagle made out of gold. The head is removable and inside is what holds the holy oil that they use during the coronation procession. I also saw the crown (unbelievable) and the orb which I am not sure what it was used for.
Finally the last thing I wanted to mention was the guards that walked around the tower. They wore really cool uniforms and actually had a really cool background. I learned that they were the ceremonial guardians of the tower and they needed to have a background of at least 22 years in the military. They also had to be at least 40 years of age and no older than 55. They all live within the tower walls. About 140 people live there (about 40 families). How cool would that be to say you lived in the tower of London…
Anyways that took up most of my day. I got left at the tower and had to find my way home by myself which wasn’t a big deal. Then later in the evening we had FHE at Hyde Park and then went to a frozen yogurt place called Snog. It was fabulous. Now im off to do homework.

2009-07-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

London Bridge is falling down...

2009-07-12T08:07:00.001-07:00

top and middle: view from the top of St. Pauls

bottom: the memorial to the american soldiers

2009-07-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

St. Paul's Cathedral

July 11-12th

2009-07-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a busy day as well. I woke up with a headache and didn’t feel well the entire day but it still was a lot of fun. We got a little bit of a late start on the day but still got a lot done. We started off by going to the grocery store…again… then we all headed over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was stunning. All of the intricacy and detail that went into that chapel amazes me. It was overwhelming and I could have stayed for hours. It was impossible to really take it all in in the amount of time I was there. The Cathedral itself is a little over 300 years old and is still a working church where millions come to worship. I won’t talk about the whole cathedral but I will talk about a few of my favorite things. The dome is absolutely breath taking. It is one of the largest in the world and was conceived by Sir Christopher Wren as an observatory linking heaven and earth. The interior of it is decorated with paintings depicting scenes from the life of St. Paul as well as mosaics depicting Old Testament prophets and the four evangelists. The quire, which is just in front of the high altar, is the focal point for music. Its mosaics depict the creation as well as other biblical scenes. The organ was gigantic, but very stunning. Something else that I wasn’t expecting was a memorial for American servicemen who lost their lives in the Second World War. It was pretty interesting. After walking around the ground floor we walked up nearly 300 steps to the whispering gallery. This was soooo cool. A whisper spoken against one wall of the gallery can be heard 32 meters away on the other side of the dome. My friends and I had a good time whispering sweet nothings to each other… After that we went up another 119 steps to a little over look but don’t worry that wasn’t the top…we still had 152 steps left! We finally made it to the top (might I add that after this trip I am going to have AMAZING calves.) the panoramic views over London were unbeatable.
After St. Paul’s we were all pretty tired but we decided to go shopping. I still had a headache so I didn’t really feel like being out with a lot of people. It didn’t help that because it was a Saturday everyone and their dog (literally) were all out doing things. I was sooo claustrophobic on the tube and shopping was not very fun at all. I did find some cute scarves which seem to be the “cool” thing here. But by the time I got home I was so sick that I thought I was going to pass out. This reminds me why I don’t want to live in a huge city. We all hung out and did homework for the remainder of the night…
Today we had church. The five of us in my ward had travel quite a way for our meetings. We were joking that we went to 3 hours of church AND traveled 3 hours to get there. But the funny thing is, is that im not kidding. I forgot how convenient Utah is. I feel like it made me appreciate it more. We just barely got home and im exhausted. In my new ward I was assigned to work with the primary kids. I was surprised to see how well behaved they were. I am really looking forward to the next 4 weeks with them. My ward is made up of a lot of the rougher areas in London. The people in the ward are all very different. There are a lot of people from all over the world, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil, the Philippians, Hungary (just to name a few.) it is VERY diverse. The bishop there is from good old Salt Lake City though kind of funny. Any ways now I am exhausted and am going to take a nap.

2009-07-11T01:53:00.000-07:00

Top: A few of us after the show.

second: some fabulous Gelato

3: some greek artifacts that i thought were cool

2009-07-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

top: a few friends and me standing around an egyptian artifact.

second: the British Museum

Bottom: me flying through platform 9 3/4...off to Hogwarts.

July 10th

2009-07-10T09:46:00.001-07:00

Today two of my friends and I got up early and went and ran in Hyde Park. What a cool park! We didn’t realize how big it was until we ran around it..We are guessing we did about 6ish miles. It was such a nice morning. Once we got back a big group of us went out for the day. Our first stop was Leschter Square where we booked half price Les Miserable tickets for tonight. After that we decided to get a start on all of the required sites that we have to visit for our class. On the way though we stopped at the famous 9 ¾ platform from Harry Potter. We all took really fun pictures and definitely looked like tourists. Then for our first site we went to the British Library where we saw an exhibit that had a lot of history from Samuel Jackson’s Dictionary. His dictionary provided more comprehensive vies of the English language than anything had up until that time. It explained more difficult words and also had principles and also more specific usages of the wording. It was completed in 1755 and was two folio volumes. It was recognized as a landmark in the recording of the English language. It was notable for its definitions and illustrative quotation (a little bit like the 0xford dictionary that we saw yesterday).
Something completely different but super cool at the same museum was some brief history about the Beatles. Something that I found out was that the song “Help” which was written in 1980 by John Lennon originally started off as a literal cry for help. It was sped up during recording to make it more commercial and Lennon was not happy with it. It was supposed to be slow and the lyrics were supposed to set the mood for a song that showed how lost and lonely he was at the time of writing it. Also the song “yesterday” has an interesting story behind it. McCartney woke up with the song in his head one morning and thought that it was a song that already existed. When he realized it didn’t he jotted it down. It is the most converted popular song in history with over 3,000 versions.
We also saw one of the original copies of the Magna Carta. There are only 4 left and this museum had two of the copies.
Next we headed off to the British Museum and saw a few of the elective sites that we were supposed to visit. The two required ones were a few Viking and Roman-British history rooms. However what I found more interesting was the Egyptian exhibit which included Rosetta stone. There was also some really interesting Assyrian art that I studied in my art history class. Finally our last stop was an exhibit that had ancient Greek sculpture including pieces form the Parthenon. All I can say is I really appreciated my Art History class that I took because it made me appreciate the work so much more. I could have spent a whole day in that museum. I will have to go back one day. Now we are back at our Flat and are about to leave to go see our show.

2009-07-10T02:08:00.000-07:00

this is the chapel we were in for mass.

2009-07-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

The first picture is of Sarie and I workin the printing press. the next one is of sarah, mandie and i sorthing through the quotation slips. finally this is the original copy of the oxford english dictionary which was 12 volumes long and took over 60 years to complete.

2009-07-10T01:51:00.000-07:00

the top picture is a pictuer of the quotation slips that they passed out to the public to get help creating the Oxford English Dictionary. the second picture is an...interesting...street sign that we found. finally the last picture is the Church of Christ where we attended Mass.

July 9th

2009-07-10T01:39:00.001-07:00

Today we did a lot. We took a day trip to Oxford which was a little over an hour away. We rode the train there. Once there we explored the city which also happens to be the campus. We visited the Oxford Printing Press which was more interesting that I thought it would be. The first paper in print in Europe was in 1478 and was introduced by Theodoric Rood. But the university still wasn’t authorized to print, until Robert Dudley. Robert Dudley worked for the university and apparently had an affair with the Queen, which gave the university an in and made it so they were allowed to print. We also saw the first copy of the bible that was printed here (1675). One of the more interesting things was we got to see the original printing press. The workers had to put each individual letter in one at a time, and they had to do the word backwards. Little fact: the term upper and lower case come from this printing system because the upper case letters were literally up on the “upper case” of the shelf and the lower case likewise. Another interesting fact about this printing press is that their paper was stronger than other printing presses. The reason behind this was because they used what they referred to as Indian paper, which they produced here and it was made partly from ropes. This made the paper stronger and more durable. Finally, perhaps the coolest part of the tour was getting to see how the Oxford English Dictionary was made. The first dictionary was completed in 1928 and it took over 60 years to complete. It was originally supposed to be 4 volumes but ended up being 12. For each word in the dictionary they provided a few sentences as examples using the word in context. Instead of having a few workers look up examples for millions of words they let the general public help. They asked the people to send in quotation slips with the word at the top and a few sentences using the word on the rest of the slip. They would get thousands of these in and we got to see the sorting mail box where they would sort through them. It was all really very cool to see how much work went into it.
After this we toured around the town and my roommate and I thought it would be really cool to ride around on a double decker bus and through skittles off of it at random pedestrians. Sometimes it is nice to relax from studying and do something immature like this. We also snuck into the city town hall building and went into a big room where they held official meetings and did some homework (we got kicked out fairly soon after we got there.)
After this we all went to a Catholic Mass. It was held at the Church of Christ which was a stunning cathedral. I really enjoyed participating and experiencing another religion and their beliefs.

2009-07-10T01:31:00.000-07:00

The one is the picture of the church used in the film and book the Da Vinci Code. Next there is a picture of Tiare and I in the dark ally way where sweeny todd slit the throats of his costomers. finally there is a picture of me knocking on the door of the church pictured.