Quick Update

Hey guys!
Today was our first day of church in our assigned wards here in London. Mine is the Catford ward. The girls who went there during the winter told us that it would take a long time to get there, so we left quite early. However, we arrived at the building about an hour before the meeting started. Needless to say, we'll be sleeping in a little next week.
Since we're only here for five more Sundays, we got assignments rather than callings. Another girl and I have been assigned to Relief Society, which I'm a little nervous for. We both have to teach twice, as well as give a talk while we're here, so they're definitely keeping us busy. This ward is also really interesting and diverse. The bishop is from Russia, the Relief Society president is from Jamaiica, and there were people from Brazil and other places that I can't remember. It's very different from home, but I think it'll be a really good experience.
Tomorrow we're moving from the flats that we're staying in now to the BYU London Centre. I think it'll be really nice there, but the renovations aren't totally done. One of the things that isn't working apparently, is the wi-fi, which is kind of annoying. Then, we're leaving early Tuesday morning (and I mean early. I'm talking like 3 am) to go to Paris until Thursday, and I don't think I'm going to bring my laptop. So, I just wanted to tell you to probably not expect a new blog post until Thursday or Friday. Not that I think anybody follows this blog religiously or anything. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not dead.
See you later!

Markets and Harry Potter

Today was quite fun!
Some girls and I went to Camden Market this morning to look around. It was the first market I'd been to, but the girls I was with said that the other markets are much better. Most of the stalls were selling the same selection of t-shirts and bags at the exact same prices, so that was kind of lame. The food booths looked a little sketchy and some of the vendors were pretty pushy, but I think that might just be markets in general. It was still pretty fun to look around, though, and I did get a couple of cool things.
Wa-bam:

Harry Potter jewelry for the win. I'm very pleased.
After walking around for a bit, we decided to go to King's Cross Station, of HP fame. The line to take pictures at Platform 9 3/4 was ridiculously long, so we're probably going to go back for that later, but we did go to the cute little Harry Potter shop. The wands and scarves and things were fun to look at, but very expensive. I ended up picking up the British versions of the first three books, though.

They're so shiny! I started reading the first one, and all the minor differences are very interesting. It's really only word choices, like in the British version, the word baby Dudley learns is "Shan't" rather than "Won't," so it's nothing major, but I still enjoy it. I'm very happy with all my purchases today. I really want to get all of the HP books eventually, but that's a lot of weight and suitcase space, so I'm still debating that with myself.
Anyhow, after we got back, we watched the first Harry Potter movie. It was really, really weird, but cool to be watching HP in England. The streets that Harry and Hagrid walk down in London look very familiar now, not because I've seen the exact ones, but just because I'm more familiar with how London looks. It was very fun.
Anyhow, we're going to go get crepes in a few minutes so I'm going to be done. Until next time!

Hampton Court

Hello again!
Today we went to Hampton Court, home to both Henry VIII and later William and Mary.

The cool thing about Hampton Court is that there are two different sections to it. Part of it was built during the Renaissance, as seen above, and part was built during the Baroque period, both of which I learned about in my history of architecture class, so I thought it was pretty cool.
In the Renaissance section, there are tons of these columned chimneys. Fun fact: no two chimneys have the same brick pattern.

The Baroque section was really gorgeous too. There's this lovely courtyard designed by Christopher Wren, the same architect responsible for most of the churches in London, since he was hired to design a bunch after the Great Fire of London burned down most of the old churches:

The Baroque section also had these gorgeous painted ceilings and walls:

Here's the back of the palace, which is done in the Baroque style. Both sides of the palace are beautiful, but I think the contrast is really interesting:

The fountain kind of got in the way, but you get the idea.
My favorite part, though I loved looking through the rooms of the palace, was the grounds. They were huge and beautifully maintained. I just wanted to stay there forever, walking around and reading books. I mean, look at it:

It was just really, really pretty. Hampton Court is also the site of the largest grapevine in the world, which I didn't know was something we kept track of, but there you go. I thought it was at least worth a pic:

After seeing just about everything there was to see, we got lunch and headed back. While waiting for the train, I bought a candy bar and learned that British chocolate is really, really good. It's much smoother and creamier than your standard Hershey's bar. I'm definitely a fan.
Anyhow, that was my day today! Tomorrow, some girls and I are going to check out a few markets, and next week, we're all going to Paris!

Warwick, Stratford, and the British Museum

Hello!
It's been awhile, but I'm back with a real blog entry!
Yesterday started quite early with us getting on a bus (a rented one, not a public one) at about 8 am. We drove for about two hours and passed a lot of absolutely gorgeous scenery. It was nice to get out of London for a bit and see the England that I'd imagined from my Jane Austen books. The countryside is unspeakably lovely with the rolling hills and cute little towns. We passed fields with sheep, cows, and even baby horses, which were adorable. We finally arrived at Warwick Castle (pronounced like "Warrick"). That's one of the weirdest things about English-style English. They don't pronounce half the letters in their words, or at least the names of places. I don't know who the person was who looked at the word Gloucester and thought that "Gloster" was the right way to say it, but apparently it caught on.
Anyhow, the castle:

There were signs all over celebrating the castle's 1100th birthday, so that gives you an idea of how old it is. It was originally built by William the Conqueror (in 1068 according to Wikipedia, so I'm not quite sure how they came up with 1100, but whatever). I actually just read through a bit of the Wikipedia page to try to figure out some of its history, since I don't feel like I learned too much about it while I was there, for reasons that will soon be made clear, but it mostly just talks about different Earls of Warwick that it passed between, so it's mostly just a cool castle, I guess.
The castle had a bit of a different style than the Tower of London. It was very touristy, which I guess the Tower was as well, but this one felt a little more amusement park-y, like Lagoon without the rides. There were people dressed in period garb and different carnival-ish games you can play.
The creepiest thing was that most of the rooms were filled with eerily realistic wax figures.

There were two different time periods represented: a medieval section and a later section, maybe in the 1700's or 1800's (I really tried to find out exactly when it was, but I'm still not sure. Sorry). It had some pretty cool interiors. I recognized some Baroque and Rococo furniture thanks to my history of interior design class. There were also some pretty cool historical-ish items there, like this clock that once belonged to Marie Antoinette, which was purchased by one of the owners of the castle:

Two of the most famous owners of Warwick were Henry VIII and Richard III, however neither of them ever actually lived in it. They mostly just left it neglected, which is a shame. Here they are, once again in creepy waxwork:

I don't know who thought the wax was a good idea. It's really unnerving.
My favorite parts of the castle were the least touristy. There was a really lovely rose garden that I enjoyed even though the roses weren't actually blooming yet.

 A couple of girls and I also climbed up a ridiculously long and slightly dangerous-feeling spiral staircase to get up to the top of one of the towers. There were really gorgeous views from up there:

I mean, look at that! It's so incredible that I get to see these things.
Anyhow, overall Warwick castle wasn't my favorite thing that we went to. It just felt a little overdone with all the waxworks and characters running around. It would have been really nice if it were just the castle and the grounds without all the fluff. If you ever have a chance, I would say go since it's quite picturesque, but if you're in England and your schedule's tight, I would say it's a pretty safe one to miss.
After Warwick, we got back on the coach and drove to the next attraction: Anne Hathaway's house. This house also had a very nice garden. Many of the plants had little plaques next to them with quotes from Shakespeare's plays that had mentioned the plant's name. After wandering the gardens for a bit, we made our way to the actual house:

I'm loving on the wattle and daub. It's such a friendly sort of cottage. We were guided through the house where we got to see the settle where Anne and Shakespeare were supposed to have courted as well as the original stone floor in the kitchen, which is the only flooring in the house that is the same as it was during Shakespeare's time. It was cool to walk through such an old house, but there really wasn't actually too much to see, especially since Shakespeare never actually lived there. It was also quite small and crowded, so we mostly just shuffled through the rooms and it was hard to get a really good look at anything. It's kind of hard to see things like this with such a big group, which was probably the biggest problem.
The next place we went to was the farm that belonged to the family of Mary Arden, Shakespeare's mother. It's a working farm today, but it tries to remain the same as it would have been back in Shakespeare's day.
They had lots of interesting animals, like these pigs that were Maggie-colored:

And these pigs that were rather sheepish (literally):

There was also a pile of sleeping ferrets, which are creepier than the wax figures:

The cutest thing was this baby cow:

There was also a pretty cool falconry exhibit, or "predatory bird demonstration" as the guy called it, since falconry means that live prey is involved. It was a pretty cool little farm, but it started raining and was pretty cold, which meant that we spent quite a bit of our time in the gift shop and cafe.
Next we went into Stratford itself to go to Shakespeare's birthplace. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of it, but probably my favorite part of it was a window that had signatures of visitors carved into it, including those of famous writers who'd come to visit. It was quite hard to decipher, since there were so many of them, but it wasn't so much the names themselves that interested me. It was how people felt obligated to leave a mark on the home of someone who'd left a mark on them. It's like they were hoping to retroactively become a part of Shakespeare's life because he was a part of theirs. I'm probably romanticizing here, since lots of it was probably just like graffiti that you see on, like, fences at Lagoon, but still. Continuing my tradition of buying books at the homes of their writers, I picked up a pretty little copy of Shakespeare's sonnets at the gift shop.
My favorite part of the day was going to Trinity Church. It was there, standing at the grave of William Shakespeare, that I finally felt the connection to him that I'd been searching for all day. Not everyone in the group had come to the church, so it was less crowded, plus there's something about old churches that induces quiet. I don't think it quite matched the moment alone at Dickens's desk, but it was a similar feeling of connection and inspiration, and it was just really nice.

There was also the font where baby Shakespeare was baptized, as well as a rather scary bust that his friends purchased and placed in the church:

The church itself was absolutely beautiful, too. I really loved all the stained glass.

After we left the church, we walked past the site of New Place, which is the home Shakespeare bought and lived in after he'd made some money from the theater. The house is no longer there, but it was still cool to see the site.

 After getting dinner, we got to go see Henry IV part 1 performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The play was incredibly good. I'd never seen or read one of Shakespeare's history plays, so I didn't really know what to expect, but it was fantastic. It was funny and well-acted. I wish I'd read the play before so I had a better handle on its politics and the back-story on some of the aspects of the play, but it was still very enjoyable. My only regret is that I was so tired from the long day. I'd gone to bed fairly late the night before and gotten up early, plus we'd done so much walking that I was really struggling to pay attention even though the play was so good. I have to admit that I nodded off a few times during the second half. I really wish that I hadn't, but there it is. I wasn't the only one, but it makes me feel like a Shakespeare traitor. I'd love to see another play by the RSC when I'm not quite so tired.
After the play, we had another coach ride back to the flats and went straight to bed.
Today was another full day, although not quite so full as yesterday. We had class this morning and then went for our second London walk.
The first interesting site on our walk was the British Museum. It's enormous, so we only went through a few exhibits. Thankfully it's free, and I'll definitely be coming back another time. We walked through the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman exhibits. I got to see the Rosetta Stone, which was really cool. It was super crowded, so I didn't get a great picture. Have the Rosetta Stone and some guy's head:

I was also giggling a little bit because Sydney and I have this joke about someone having the Rosetta Stone on an engagement ring (because people refer to diamonds as "rocks"), and seeing how massive it was was just really funny.
I also got to see the Elgin Marbles, which are pieces of the frieze of the Parthenon. It was amazing to be able to look at the Parthenon while standing in London.

 Have you ever been so mad, you punched a centaur?

The next stop was University College London. The main attraction there was really weird: the Auto-Icon of Jeremy Bentham. Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism, wrote in his will that he wanted his body preserved and displayed at the College. So his actual skeleton is inside his actual clothes (padded out) sitting on his actual chair in the college. He originally wanted his mummified head to top it all off, but the mummification process went slightly awry, so they topped it with a wax head instead and store his real head in the university vault. What a guy.

For your edification, please google "Jeremy Bentham mummified head" and prepare to be thoroughly creeped out. Or don't. It's pretty cool/gross though.
We also walked through Tavistock Square, where Dickens lived during the time that he wrote many of his later novels including Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and A Tale of Two Cities. Sadly, the house is no longer there, so we weren't able to tour it or anything. It's just a park now.
The last stop on our walk was the British Library, another place that deserves a whole day rather than the half-hour or so we were able to give it.

Inside, there's a large collection of rare books and manuscripts. I saw part of Jane Austen's manuscript for Persuasion as well as her writing desk, which was very, very cool. There were some of the early published copies of Shakespeare's plays (not the Folios) and part of a Dickens manuscript. There were also pages of music handwritten by Handel, Bach, and Mozart. I don't know too much about classical music, but they were still really cool to see. I also took a quick peek at the Magna Carta, which was there as well. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm definitely going back because I only saw a small portion of all the amazing things they had there.
Well, thanks for reading this very long post. I'm having a lovely time here, but I need to get to bed now.
Tomorrow: Hampton Court, home of Henry VIII

More Excuses

Hey guys,
So the daily blog entry plan may have been a little ambitious. I know I promised to do a better entry today, but it's almost 11:30 and all my roommates are in bed, so I'm going to have to put it off again and just do a quickie tonight.
We have to get up pretty early tomorrow to leave for Stratford-upon-Avon and we won't get back until late, so there likely won't be a post tomorrow either. I'll try to update you on Thursday, though!
I had quite a nice day today, though. A girl I knew from my freshman ward was in town, so we got together and had lunch. She was part of the winter study abroad group, so she gave me lots of good recommendations for places to visit. We then walked around South Kensington a bit and through Kensington Gardens, which was lovely.
I then went with a group of girls to see a musical called Once. The other girls were raving about it on the way back, but I actually didn't like it very much. The name is pretty apt, since I wouldn't like to see it more than once. The music was quite good and very different from your typical musical music. The story was quite contrived, though, and I didn't really like any of the characters much. Plus the language was quite a bit saltier than I would prefer. I may be the wrong person to ask though, because everyone else who I've talked to who has seen it has loved it.
Anyway, I better get some sleep. Gotta look good for Shakespeare, you know.

Defying Gravity

Hello from London!
I don't have a lot of time for a lengthy blog post tonight, but I'll make up for it soon, I promise! We have a map quiz tomorrow that I haven't studied for very well, plus a quiz on a chapter of our geography book that I haven't read yet. I just wanted to write a quick update for the people who care.
Yesterday we went to church at the Hyde Park chapel since the wards that we will be going to all had stake conference really far away. It was a really interesting experience to see all of the diversity at church. The man who blessed the sacrament had a Jamaican accent, which was pretty cool. After church, I went for a walk in Hyde Park and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was incredible how crowded it was, though. The park is huge, but it was absolutely packed. Here's a shot of the Royal Albert Hall from the park. It was an absolutely gorgeous day.

 This is also probably a good time to show you where we're living. It's a few connected row houses in Queen's Gate Terrace pretty close to Hyde Park. It's such a pretty street too. You just don't see architecture like this in Provo.

Today, I went with a group of girls to see Wicked and it was really, really good. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I sort of went into it from a perspective of not liking the Wizard of Oz very much. I really enjoyed this play, though. The music was great, the singers, especially the two witches, were fantastic, and I really enjoyed that the story was thoughtful and complex, which I wasn't expecting so much.

We were able to get quite good seats for pretty cheap what with student discounts and buying them the day of the performance.

Overall, I had a very nice time. If you haven't seen the play and ever have the chance to go, I would definitely recommend it.
And now I really have to get studying. See you later!

The Charles Dickens Museum

We didn't have anything scheduled for today, so I thought I might go on a bit of a Charles Dickens pilgrimage. I googled "Charles Dickens sites in London" hoping for maybe a list of places referenced in his books and found instead an entire museum. Needless to say, I had to go.
It was a pretty easy tube ride to get there, plus there were handy signs directing me from the tube station to the museum, which was nice since this was my first solo London outing. The museum website said that it opened at 10, so I got there right on time to beat the possible rush. Unfortunately, a girl came out to say that they were experiencing some technical difficulties which would likely take about 40 minutes to rectify. I made friends with a man who was also waiting for the museum and we had a nice chat. He was a professional photographer who was coming to the museum to get photos for his next book. He's apparently pretty well known and his book is for sale at the British Museum, which I will have to check out when we go. He seemed rather put out by the wait, and I don't think he was much of a Dickens fan himself, as he didn't know whether Bleak House was one of Dickens's books or homes. My new friend did offer to take some pictures of me with my camera, and they actually turned out really nicely:

 The girls kept coming out and telling us that things weren't fixed yet, so I took a little walk and got some swanky hot chocolate at a coffee shop. By the time I got back to the museum, things still weren't working, but I decided to stick it out to prove my Dickens devotion. Plus, I had nothing better to do. It turns out that the "technical difficulty" that made us unable to enter the museum due to "health and safety reasons" was that the internet wasn't working. Go figure. They finally decided to allow us in as long as we paid cash, since the card reader wouldn't work. I happily forked over my six pounds (student discount, yo) and entered the museum.
What's cool about the museum is that it's in a row house (48 Doughty Street) where Dickens actually lived from 1837 to 1839.

It was while he lived in this house that he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, which were early in his writing career, but they also display many of his personal items from later in his life. It was a surreal experience to walk through the same door and up the stairs that he'd walked through so many times, and to see all the little things like tables, books, and dishes that had been part of his life. In his study where he did his writing, they'd placed the desk that he'd used later:

This is the desk on which he wrote A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. I almost cried; I kid you not. It was just such an amazing experience to be so close to where my favorite book was composed. As weird as it sounds, I think just standing and looking at this desk will be one of my very favorite parts of this trip. I just felt such inspiration and desire to go out and create, but also to create for good. I love that Dickens cared about his world and that he tried to create change in his society. He wrote great books, but he also tried to help people.

In another room was one of the tables that he used for his public readings, as well as a copy of one of his books that he had annotated for reading, which was pretty cool to see.

 On the very top floor, they had the prison grille from the Marshalsea Debtor's Prison, where his father was imprisoned during Dickens's childhood and where part of Little Dorrit is set (shout out to Lucy who lent the BBC miniseries to Mom and me!).

After seeing all there was to see in the museum and taking lots more pictures that I won't burden you with, I headed back down to the gift shop where I was tempted by lots of things. I finally settled on buying a pretty little copy of Oliver Twist, since I'm a sucker for pretty books and it had actually been written in this very location and because Nicolas Nickleby was heavier and more expensive, and a keychain with an actual penny from the Victorian era (mine was dated 1895) because I needed a keychain and because it was awesome.

I stopped for lunch, then made my way back to my apartment. It's only about 2:30 now, but I have quite a bit of homework that I have to get working on, so I doubt I'll do anything too interesting for the rest of today, except possibly go read in Hyde Park.
I really enjoyed going out by myself today. It's fun to do things with a group, but it was also really nice to go to this museum that probably no one else in the group would have been too interested in and take all the time I wanted. I really like going to these sort of out-of-the-way places where there aren't huge lines or crowds. Even though it's a Saturday with a long weekend since Monday's a bank holiday, there were probably about ten other visitors in the museum total, which was refreshing.
Next week I'll be making another pilgrimage, this time with the whole group to Stratford-Upon-Avon, so look forward to that!
Thanks for reading!