Blue Birds Over the Cliffs of Dover

Sorry for the week long delay in the posting effort- we went to St. Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday and I thought for sure I would be able to post about that but you are not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral so you will just have to take my word for it when I say it is beautiful and that the Whispering Gallery really does work- you really can whisper from any one point in the dome and hear it at any other spot, it is really cool! One more thing before I tell about this week's trip and that is that I want to make a little bit of a birthday shout out to Grandma Lucy!!! Happy Birthday Grandma, I wanted to call you on skype yesterday but you were never online when I was online so I will try again soon! I love you!!

This Wednesday's trip was to Dover and Canterbury. For those of you around during the second world war or interested in the music of that era might recognize my title as a line from a popular war-time song that I heard for the first time yesterday. Dover is located on the southeast coast of England and is a beautiful town! It is positioned right on the channel so yesterday as I stood for this picture, I could practically see France- pretty cool! This picture was taken right outside of the war time tunnels just prior to our tour of the tunnels. There was no photography allowed in the tunnels or I would for sure have some pictures to share because I thought they were amazing! The tunnels here were used during WWII as a command center. When I say tunnels you need to think bigger than what you are thinking- I promise. This was more like an underground community with lodging and a cafeteria and many different control centers and even a hospital- it was amazing. I liked to try to imagine what the tunnels would have been like during the war when they were hustling and bustling with all kinds of activity. When we were walking through the hospital and the lights kept flickering, I tried to imagine operating on an injured soldier in the dark, probably not the easiest kind of operation. I really enjoyed the tunnels and learning more about WWII history!

This is as good as it gets of the tunnels... sorry!

After the tunnels we explored around Dover Castle which has been very well preserved. There is a large portion of the castle still standing, unlike Portchester last week. Unfortunately, a lot of the castle was not open for us to walk around in but it was still fun to see! I would have been content just to see the views that being up so high on the hill there afforded us- it was BEAUTIFUL!!! See for yourself :)

So after the tunnels and the castle and the cliffs we hopped back on the coach and headed to Canterbury. While in Canterbury we saw the remains of St. Augustine's Abbey which was as cool as a whole lot of rocks protruding from the ground can be... we did find some fun activities like jumping some gaps between rocks and pretending to be Zelda... it was great! After the remains of the Abbey we went to Canterbury Cathedral which is beautiful and it is the martyrdom site of St. Thomas Beckett. It was cool to see that memorial and to learn more about the story. Pretty much the King instituted Thomas Beckett as the Arch Bishop of Canterbury (one of the most powerful positions in the church) because he and the King had been pals for a long time and the King figured that Beckett would have no problem backing him in every decision he made. Either the power, or the gospel (we'll say the gospel because I have faith in Beckett) went to Beckett's head and he no longer wanted to do whatever the King said, he wanted to do what the church said. For this reason, the King wanted to be "rid himself of this meddlesome Priest" and on that command men came to Canterbury, right into the Cathedral where Beckett was praying and they killed him. Just an interesting tid bit... for your information! So after the cathedral we were given some time to wander around Canterbury and then we headed home. Just like every other Wednesday, this was a great day! It was incredible to see all of these places and think of what went into making them and how they might have functioned in their prime- it was pretty awesome! In case you were wondering, Janna and I did bus fun today and it went great!Playing Zelda at St. Augustine'sOutside Canterbury CathedralSaw this in Canterbury and thought of you brother! Love you!

I love you... Most ardently.

So I found paradise today! It is located in Stourhead Gardens somewhere not too far from London in a place called Andover. We only spent about an hour here but I could have spent all day here or the rest of my life. A large amount of the excitement that surrounded the visit to these gardens stemmed from the fact that is the location where a scene from the new Pride and Prejudice was filmed. The scene is the one where Darcy confesses his love to Elizabeth, in the rain, under the cover of a structure in which I stood today! He first explains to her all the reasons why he should not like her and then says that he does like her that in fact he, "Loves her, most ardently." It is kind of the best movie line ever. Being there made me almost feel like I needed a Mr. Darcy to be in love with me most ardently but then I remembered that I was fine just the way I am but, it was fun to feel like Elizabeth Bennett for the day. I loved being in the gardens. I felt like everything was right there and nothing could go wrong! I had this funny feeling that even if something did go wrong that it would be ok because I was in the most beautiful place that I had ever been been in my life! It was also fun to take fun pictures and to pretend to be part of a Jane Austen novel.
The next stop we made on our trip this Wednesday was in Winchester. Of course, my friend Janna and I did our bus fun for everyone today. We wrote poems about some of the girls in our programs for the other girls to figure out and we sang again and we gave some news from home. I enjoy doing bus fun I won't lie. I think there might be something about the microphone, I have always kind of liked attention so it is a great job for me :) Winchester was kind of the low point for me today. It was cool and all but I was really tired and we saw a cathedral (which we have seen a lot of) and some ruins of a castle that were cool but I was so tired so it was hard to pay attention. It was fun though and I am glad that I had the opportunity to see it!!

The next part of the trip was really fun! I had my doubts because I was so tired and we were going to more castle ruins but these ruins were way fun! They were also located right on the water, the harbor which leads to the ocean, which made a pretty incredible back-drop. We climbed to the top of the ruins of the castle and looked out over the water and it was amazing! I was delighted to see how open and available the ruins were. We were allowed to pretty much climb around on whatever we wanted and just play among what was left of the castle that once stood there. I feel so lucky to be here and to have the opportunity to see the things that I am seeing. Today, as I was walking along the water by Portchester Castle, I had this amazing feeling of just loving where I was. I really am just thankful to be able to be here! I hope you all enjoy my pictures from Portchester almost as much as I enjoyed being there!Just posing on some ruins...Janna and the view from the top of the castle ruins.The beach?Right outside the castle wallWe got kind of artsy towards the end, I like this one mainly because it is black and white.

A Bird's Eye View

For those of you who have ever been to London or have ever seen a picture of the London skyline you have most likely seen the large ferris wheel structure that sits on the bank of the Thames. Even though this picture looks a little bit like a back drop, I promise we were there today and, since the sun was shining, we decided to take a flight. The tickets were a little pricey but I figured that this is an experience that I can have no where else so I dished out the 15 pounds and got into the little glass capsule with my friends Maddie, Melissa and Hillary.
The ride was nothing short of breathe taking. I am not sure exactly what was taking my breathe, the height or the views. I never knew that I had any kind of a height problem but while I was in the eye and approaching the top I was feeling just a little bit nervous. Don't worry, everything was ok! My capsule didn't spontaneously break off and fall into the Thames or anything so, all in all, it was a success!
It was incredible to see London from the point of view that we did and on such a beautiful day! We were able to find Big Ben and Parliament (I would be a little worried if we couldn't :) we also saw Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey. It was cool to be able to point out all those places and know what they were and where they were, I am starting to feel a little bit more like a Londoner!
I will share some more of the pictures that we took from the eye so everyone can get the full experience... or as full of an experience that you can from a blog :) It was tricky to get good shots because of the position of the sun- I am not as good as Rodg so, bear with my amateur pictures. Enjoy!

Recent Happenings

So here is an update since I have been such a slacker- I apologize immensely to those of you who enjoy reading this, I am not sure how many people that applies to but, I am sorry! The reason for my absence is that I have not taken many pictures since Wednesday so this post in going to be a lot more words than pictures but I guess we will see who the faithful are from who actually reads this post :)
Some quick updates! Thursday I found my souvenir, I bought a sweet rugby jersey, it is an English national team jersey and it is way cool! That purchase pretty much made my Thursday until our whole group went to a concert at Royal Festival Hall Thursday night- it was amazing. We heard the London Philharmonia play and they played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto with this pianist who was amazing, I do not have words for just how talented he was. I had a perfect view of his hands and I could not take my eyes off of them, it was amazing!
Friday Maddie, Melissa and I went to the biggest mall in all of England- it was huge. This mall was so big that is felt overwhelming and I got very tired very quickly. This was the first time in my life that I have seen a Prada store. I also saw Versace, Dior and Tiffany's- I think there was a wealthy person part of the mall but there was also a regular person part of the mall and that is where we spent most of our time.
Saturday was pretty much a resting day, I did some homework, watched The Office and went for a run to a new park that I really liked called Holland Park- it was beautiful!!!
Sunday was pretty exciting! On the way to church, our train was cancelled so we had to find another train to church which was an adventure but we conquered! The three girls that I go to church with and I all spoke in Sacramet this week (so if we wouldn't have made it to church that would have made church pretty exciting for the bishopric :) Our talks went well! A member of the ward told me that he calls the girls from BYU "Brigham's Angels" because we make everything so much better! It was precious! I am the primary pianist/singing time organizer so I did that this Sunday. Singing time went well and I am really excited to get even more comfortable with my calling and the kids! All the kids in our primary are African and they are all wonderful, a little wild, but wonderful!
Today I went to the National Gallery for an assignment and then my friend Melissa and I decided that we wanted to walk home from there. I love the tube, don't get me wrong, but I find that since I do most of my traveling underground that I have zero sense of direction overground so today we decided to tackle this problem! Melissa and I walked home from Trafalgar Square today and I am counting that as a big accomplishment! On the way home we saw Green Park, Buckingham Palace and the gardens surrounding it, it was a beautiful walk and we got all the way home. This is what I saw on the way home and I had to take a picture. I think this is the first sunset I have seen since I have been here and it made me so incredibly happy!!

No, I didn't bathe at Stonehenge but I did go to Bath

Today, being a Wednesday, we took a group excursion! Today's trip was to Bath and Stonehenge and Salisbury. The day started early. We had to be on the bus and rolling by 7:15, the supplies for our lunches, which we put together ourselves, were out at 6:00 which means that I was up at 5:55. I do believe this is the first time I have seen a five as the first number on the clock in the year of 2009. Getting up early was pretty much worth it. With views like this one from the bus, it really was worth it! The views that we saw actually reminded me a lot of home, this is kind of what Pennsylvania looks like and, ironically, we passed through a hamlet called Pennsylvania. For the record, a community is a village when it has homes, a church and a pub. A community is a hamlet when it lacks either the church or the pub... just an FYI. Driving through the countryside also makes me think of Jane Austen novels like the part in Sense and Sensibility when Marianne is running through the fields and falls and is rescued by Willoughby who later turns out to be scum or in Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy meet in the field and confess their love to one another- nothing like this happened to me today but I thought about it all the same.
Turns out that Bath is called Bath because there are really baths there. There are remains of ancient Roman baths in the town of Bath so I learned today that the name of the town makes complete sense. I felt like this town was kind of what I envisioned when I pictured England in my mind. The streets were lined with buildings everywhere. We walked across the famous Plutney Bridge which is a bridge that has shops built right on it, it was pretty and there was a really cool Rugby shop from which I wanted to buy a rugby jersey but, they were really expensive, so I restrained. It was hard though!










So we left Bath and headed to Stonehenge. The drive was about an hour or so which brings me to some exciting news. I was recently made co-chair of the bus fun committee. As easy as this may sound, it is pretty intense. My friend Janna and I are in charge of planning activities to keep 40 girls and around eight faculty members happy and entertained. Today Janna and I gave news from home just weather and sports and stuff and then we did a couple of spotlights on different girls through music. We re-wrote a couple of Disney songs and then sang them for everyone and had them guess who we were singing about. It was fun and people enjoyed it so, stay tuned for more installments of Bus Fun!!
Getting to Stonehenge was a little less exciting than I expected it to be. The sight is set right next to the road and it is not quite as big as I thought but, it was fun to see. I feel like it is one of those things that I can say I have seen and feel really cool about it. Here is a couple of pictures from Stonehenge, they are pretty self explanatory.
Salisbury was nice but, unfortunately, at this part of the day I was pretty tired. We had this adorable British man give us a tour of the cathedral there. This cathedral is the highest point in England. The spire reaches to 404 feet and it amazes me that things could be built that high so long ago. Today's trip was wonderful. I feel like I learn so much here everyday and I am so thankful for this experience. I will leave you with a picture of the cathedral so you can experience Salisbury with me!

Guess Who I Met Today!!!!

I was going to lie and try to get everyone to believe that I met all these famous people today but then I decided that I didn't want to compromise my morals :) As today was inauguration day Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum decided that they would give free admission to Americans because the British people love Obama. So we all grabbed our passports and headed to the museum.
The museum was really fun! There is no way I would pay the normal price of like 25 pounds to view a large number of rather eerie looking wax figures but free was good! Free is my favorite price! We had a really great time taking funny pictures with all the figures, pretending to be famous and making fools of our selves. It is really fun getting to know the girls in my program better, getting to be better friends and getting to be more comfortable here. Here, on the right, is me and Maddie and Melissa with Zac Efron, aka, Troy Bolton from High School Musical 1, 2 and 3. They had an entire room dedicated to High School Musical and they took pictures of this scene and tired to sell them to you just like they do on amusement park rides... I guess standing by a fake Zac Efron is kind of like an amusement park ride, ok, maybe not :)
I felt as though I had to post this picture of me and Ringo and George and Paul and John. The Beatles seem even cooler in London, I am not sure why that is but that is how I feel :) So here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the day, I met some pretty famous wax figures.

There is the evidence, me giving advice to Tiger on a tough put and taking a victory lap with Lance. I only stood in a long line for one picture and that was this one with Barack Obama. We figured it was an appropriate thing to do since it was inauguration day and all. We were able to watch the inauguration ceremony today at the center. It felt good to be in touch with something that was going on back home. I won't take sides here but I will say that I have faith. I have faith in people and faith in our country. Things are in the Lord's hands and whatever needs to happen will happen. With a president that makes as good a wax statue as Barrack, we should be great right? I sure hope so.

Taking a Walk on the Wild Side!

So thanks to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we, the students at BYU's London Centre, did not have class today. Even though Martin Luther King Day is not really recognized really at all in England we are still Americans (although if you heard my accent you might question, it's pretty convincing :). A couple of girls and I decided to make the most of our day off with a trip to the London Zoo. We hopped on the tube and rode it to Cambel Town on the Northern line, walked a little bit and there we were- well after getting lost in Regent's Park, there we were :)

The zoo was a great choice for today! the only thing that would have made it any better would have been a little bit warmer tempertures, but it wasn't that bad. We saw pretty much the whole zoo which was a pretty cool zoo and we had a great time doing it! It is so fun to be making new friends and enjoying so many different aspects of this study abroad experience! Here is a pictorial representation of our day. Enjoy!Maddie and Melissa, on the way to the zoo, we were a little excited.Practicing our fish faces- there are fish behind us if you can't tell.Just wanted to let everyone know it's ok to stop looking for Nemo... I found him.If you notice, Dory is in the background which explains why we all look forgetful- like Dory.This is the same reptile house as seen in Harry Potter, yea, pretty sweet!This was right before glass vanished...Me, just trying to fit in.Family portrait with the Giraffe family. Geoffrey is standing and Gemimia is seated :) I don't have words for this...Simba and Nala... obviously :)This was at the end of the day- all in all it was a great day!!!