Southwestern Trip + Some

I know I haven't posted in a while... The further behind I get, the less I want to start in on it. Bleh. But, I did write an email to Greg (brother on a mission) that basically related everything, so in order to catch up, I've decided just to post a bit of what I wrote him. It's all pretty much there...

I'll try and do better!

 Sorry I haven't written in a while, a lot has happened. I'm trying to remember what we did before I last wrote. I think it was right before we left for our south western tour. Our first stop was in Bath; they are the only geothermal hot springs in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, the Romans beat us to it, and while the ruins were cool (Bath was built up around it and then they rediscovered the ruins when digging down), I would have liked to have gotten to go in them, or view them in their natural state. Oh well, the statues and ruins were cool! We also went to a fashion museum... It was really funny- they kind of turned it into a bonding moment, involving 40 girls and corsets... Yeah. Anywho, fashion is nuts, just in case you didn't know. It was sooo windy there too! My hair was beyond description. We stopped for Indian food on the way back... We asked a local, who happened to be an owner of a local B & B, so he knew the area really well. The walk home wasn't too great-- the hostel was a bit outside the town, and when you're tired, the hills just aren't cool.
The second day we went to the ruins as Glastonberry Abbey. It was really cool!! I got a ton of pictures, and it made me want ruins with my future castle :). Am I allowed to send you pictures? We got taken on a tour by one of the period actor people. I forget the name of the guy he was supposed to be, but he was supposed to be the guy sent by Henry viii to shut down all the churches in England. It was kind of gross listening to them describe how they killed and tortured people. After that, we went on one of the most amazing hikes ever! We met in Tintagel (the group split into two, one was hiking INTO Tintagel, the other was hiking OUT of Tintagel to Boscastle. I was in the second group) and then hiked along the cliffs next to the Irish Sea (it was a beautiful cloudy day, and the colors were so brilliant!). It was about a 5+ mile hike and there were more stairs then I think I've ever done in my life (not really, St. Paul's Cathedral was more). It was sooo up and down, my legs were killing me. Knees were not happy!! That night, our professors made up dinner-- pasta al forno, garlic bread, and a whole chocolate bar! YES! And then, our group was too big to fit in the hostel, so two of us got to stay in a B&B.... I got to!! It was sooo nice, and the next morning, the B&B owner made us breakfast-- I had crepes :).
Third day-- Tintagel castle-- a reaaaally cool castle ruin perched on the edge of a cliff. They say that it was King Arthur's castle. It was fascinating to imagine people actually living there, and what they would think if they could see us now. The cliffs were beautiful! I finally found a gift for Mom too. We also finally got to eat REAL cornish pasties.. So good! Basically a pastry crust stuffed with beef, potatoes, carrots and gravy. We finished the day by going to some quoits, or neolithic stone monuments, kind of like mini stonehenges. They were a bit of a let down to be honest. We did get the bus driver, Tony, to join in on the picture though! John, one of our professors, was also hilarious. In the words of Sarah, one of my friends on the trip, he is the most apologetically inappropriate person ever.
Fourth day: Actually, the quoits were on this day. Oh well, same thing happened. The countryside around here was so beautiful! So many colors! But I don't like gorse bushes. They hurt. We also went to St. Michael's Mount-- one of my favorite places! It's basically a castle (was a strategically important place, militarily too. BTW, this is all in Penzance, as in the Pirates of)  on an island, that you could only get to at certain times because of the tide. While the tide was out, we all just took off our shoes and went wading into the Irish Sea! I got a bunch of shells, hands down one of my favorite experiences. We also went on another hike, to Land's End, or the most southern tip of England. The cliffs again were beautiful, but we were pretty quickly surrounded by fog, so it was hard to see out. They didn't want us wandering off and falling off a cliff. By now my knees were hurting a lot. Dad told me to take ibuprofen everyday. It was kind of annoying.
Friday: Stonehenge! It was actually pretty cool-- we actually started at Stourhead gardens. They were soooo beautiful! There was a lake, and the trees were beginning to change, but not too much. It was one of the old victorian gardens, you actually see the Temple of Apollo in the Kiera Knightly Pride and Prejudice, with a lake and Grecian looking buildings. I thought Mom would have loved it! The walk was so pleasant, but by the time we left, there was too many people I thought. My favorite part was the grotto-- it was built under ground, in a grotto-esque place, unsurprisingly, with a bunch of beautiful statues in it.  Then onto Stonehenge. It was right off the road, with actually not too many neopagans. We couldn't get right up in it, because they had ropes up (I think they were repairing the sod? I don't remember), but it was cool. Not like Mt. Rushmore, which was a bit of a disappointment. We kept passing old burial mounds too, all in the farmers' fields. The farmers don't plow into them, so they just leave them. Then we went home. Back to the center.

I forgot to mention Kew Gardens and Hampton Court; they were before the south western trip. I think I told you about Kew Gardens before, but Hampton Court was interesting. I'd have to look up the history again-- it was a stressful day, so I wasn't paying too much attention to it. The architecture was beautiful. The gardens were kind of funny though; the trees were cut in an interesting way. I thought they looked like the mushrooms from Mario. It was funny.

This last week was also way stressful. I was up till 2 and 3 in the morning every night. I've been soo tired. It was mainly doing art projects, although today was essay day, and I need to work on and finish like three art projects this week. Not cool. Anyway, Sarah and Jessica and I went to Camden market. It was really fun. Compared to Portobello Road, it was all clothes. Portobello is all antiques and knick knacks. We had fun trying on some of the crazy stuff. We also went to a play, the Woman in Black. It was supposed to be a scary play, and it was! Only three actors, some well done lighting and well placed sound bites, and we all jumped! We had to finish the evening off with watching Sense and Sensibility to feel better. Colonel Branden is nice :). I also went to institute this week. It was nice to finally have a religion class again. Between us being gone on trips so often, and me being in nursery, I don't get a lot of church instruction.

Hopefully I'll post more today... And maybe some pictures...

Week 4

This week was really class-based. Although, IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK!! Whoooooooo!

Of note: we did go to the Saatchi Art Gallery on Tuesday. I really didn't like it. It made me kind of depressed. With maybe one or two exceptions, every piece was extremely explicit, demeaning of traditional values, and/or poorly (in taste and quality) constructed. If that is the modern face of art, I want nothing to do with it. We figure, though, that it is the personal gallery of Saatchi (his taste I guess), and it might be like "high fashion". That is apparently the "it" in fashion, but you would never see any regular or sane person dressing like that.

We got more art projects done... I have a fondness for the project, but it felt unfinished. I talked with Peter about it, and I feel a lot better though. He agreed it needed something, but that it was a good piece, and would receive a good grade, and once I got it back, I could keep working on it and experiment, and find out what it needed.

We also got to go to Kew gardens on Wednesday. It was one of my favorite places ever! It was such a lovely walk; they had greenhouses everywhere full of tons of exotic plants. Apparently their collection of plants is so large that they have 1 out of 8 of every plant... Ever. I don't know how they calculate this, but it was beautiful. I was especially inspired by the Japanese Pagoda/temple (the architecture was gorgeous! I probably spent a good 15-20 minutes just taking photos) and then the Redwood grove. Omiheck! It was so nice! I knew that Utah didn't smell like Washington, (obviously... No offense, but how could it? It lacks both trees AND water) and neither did England, but it was closer... But that grove was "it". I didn't realize I was missing it until I was there! It was perfect. I could have stayed there all day. I told the others to just leave me there and let me breath, but they made me go after a bit.

Thursday... Was the best day ever!!! My birthday! I woke up, and one of my friends, Jessica, had gone out and bought me a chocolate filled pastry from Paul Rhodes Bakery. We did have class, but in between I got to open my package from Mom-- Thanks so much!!! Everything was frogs! I got a pair of pajama pants ("Leap into Learning!"/"Reading is toad-ally awesome!"), frog earrings, a frog laundry bag, a looooovely soft frog blanket, a frog card, a frog bookmark, and some calling cards (okay, not frogs). Then we (Sarah, Jessica, Emily, Lynne, Amy, and I) all went to Khan's for lunch. That is, hands down, the best Indian food I HAVE EVER HAD!!! I had the shahi korma, and it was to die for! We had our religion class afterward (history of the church in England). It was really interesting; we just started with the background to the opening -- i.e. the Victorian era. A cool thing we learned was how family-oriented the age was. Victoria was a young monarch, with a young family, and they were very public about it. The monarchy became the model of the ideal family. Of course in the church, the family is the most important unit. Without the family, there is no point.
After class, we (Jessica, Emily, Lynne, Amy, and Nicole)  all went out for cake. I got the most delicious cake ever!! It was called a "princess cake" and was covered in marzipan (my favorite) with strawberry and regular cream layers... Oh, sooo good! Afterwards, Jessica and I ran over to Portebello Road, and I got a gift for Greg (no, you can't know) and a pocket watch for me! It later broke, but I was able to return it and get a new one. Anyway, we tried to go see a play, but it didn't work out, but some of us went for a walk in Hyde park. When I got back, one of the girls told me the Eve (Peter's daughter) had a note for me. I went up, and it turned out to be the beginning of a scavenger hunt! It was, hands down, one of the best times of my life! There were 15 clues and included everything from chocolate, to fruit, to a scarf, and art supplies. Thanks so much to Sarah and Jessica!!!!!

Later this week, I just went back to Portabello with Sarah. It was a lot of fun, and I got the BEST pastry ever... And a gift for Aubrey AND for Dad. I'm so excited to give it to them!! I wish I could give them tomorrow!

Today was church, and we finally had kids in nursery! One kid, Junior, was just not having a good day, so he was a bit fussy, but overall all right. The two other girls, Tasmine and Victoria, were very well behaved. Tasmine fell asleep on my lap-- it was the cutest thing ever! Anyway, I need to actually pay attention right now... They are detailing our schedule. Talk to you later!

Northern Trip/ Scotland

Okay.. Sorry it's been so long since I updated this! For one of the weeks, we were in Northern England/Scotland, so I claim innocence based on the grounds that I did not have internet access. This last week though... I plead the fifth.

Anyway, Monday was a lot of travel. Our bus driver, Tony, was kind of really funny. He has apparently led a lot of groups from BYU, and is well familiar with our ways and habits. Haha! Well, our first stop was Chatsworth House. Since I still haven't gotten around to posting any pictures (I'll try for later today!) than I will simply describe it as Darcy's house in the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice. Seriously, after that, I really want a castle; Okay, technically is a "royal estate house", but either way. The house is the ducal seat for the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. It was interesting to see how far the estate extended. Even into the surrounding town, you could see the houses marked at the door, windows, and drainpipes with "Chatsworth" blue. The house itself is huge! I loved the collection of paintings and statues! I wasn't as fond over the modern works-- they didn't seem to fit in with the spirit of the house-- but many of the rooms had the original artworks. The paintings on the ceilings and walls were my favorite (versus the framed ones). Especially in one of the bedrooms, they made the paintings around the ceiling appear as though they were statues, coming off the wall. The grounds were also extremely beautiful. They had statues lining the walkways, and the smell was amazing! It wasn't quite like home (Washington) but the gardens were so intricate, with paths around rocks, and trees, and mazes, and a pond with a fountain... Yeah... I've decided that I want to live there someday. It was pretty cool too, as we were leaving, a royal helicopter flew down and landed on the front lawn. We couldn't really see who was inside, but Tony said (and I agree) that there wasn't enough security to be one of the higher-up royals. Tony guessed that it might have been the Duke and/or Duchess of Kent. Driving away, I decided that Northern England/Scotland has got to be some of my favorite country ever! Everything was so green! Different shades from back home. There were rolling hills, moss, a few trees, but not as many as Washington. I also really loved the dry stack fences they had all around. They've been there for centuries. ; basically, the farmer, as he was preparing his land, would take the stones he found and stack them between two wooden posts until they fit together so well that they could stand on their own and form a wall. They are all over the countryside! It was beautiful.

Tuesday we went to Hadrian's wall. The wall was built by the Romans, at the top border of their land. It really didn't serve much of a purpose in keeping anyone out-- there weren't any challenges to it. It manily was for the local Romans to try and make a show for the Emperor. It was also about defense before expansion, an interesting concept. We had to do a writing about that. We also got to see a Roman settlement right on the border of the wall-- there was the foundations for many buildings, such as the commander's house, bath house, the wall of  course, and several other buildings. They let us climb all over them. I got some really cool pictures... You'll have to see them sometime!  Later that day, we made it into Scotland actually. We stopped in Edinburgh, and later that evening we went and climbed Arthur's seat, which is actually where Orsan Pratt dedicated Scotland for the preaching of the gospel, It wasn't too bad of a hike-- fairly steep, but again, the landscape was beautiful! The best part was the wind! It was more windy than I have ever felt in my life! By the time you get close to the top, they have a chain that you can hold on to. Because of the wind, it was really necessary! At one point, the wind was so strong, I had to hold onto the chain or be knocked down! At the actual top, you always had to be on your toes because of the wind. Sitting down was your best bet, but if you did stand up, you could see the whole of Edinburgh! That evening, we went to the oldest/first pub in Edinburgh for dinner. We all had a bit of haggis, and it actually was really good! I'll just pretend that I don't know what it was..

Wednesday, we went to the National Gallery of Scotland. It was a lot smaller than the one in London, but they did have some really nice paintings, including some Rembrandt's, Botticelli's, and Raphael's, While Raphael isn't my favorite, I loved his colors. They have a luminescence that makes the entire painting glow! Afterwards, we went to a Hiroshi Sugimoto show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. It was a beautiful show-- I loved his lightning forms, and several of his other photos were very inspiring. In that project, we was essentially taking old photos (from around the time photography was first being invented) and reprinting them in different ways and with different effects. We then went to a Tony Cragg show. Normally I am not one for modern sculpture, but I really loved what I saw!  Many of the workds involved the human face-- the sculptures appeared abstract, but as you walked around them, you could see the faces materialize. I loved discovering each face! It was kind of amazing... The evening was pretty amazing too! We all went out to kind of wander around, and ended up at an old bookstoree. Sarah started talking to the owner, and it turned into an hour long history lesson on Mary, queen of Scots, and the Royal Stuart line. I think the original question was whether Scots considered themselves English. It was really interesting!!! Afterwards, we all went out for pizza, and I discovered that red onion marmalade is amazing!

Thursday, we ended up in Ambleside, back in England. We did a lot of hiking and I loved it! As I said before, the countryside is so beautiful! We hiked through fields and past all the farm animals, past lakes and trees and hills... It was really nice to have the time not only to just look at everything around us, but for some quiet introspection. In the evening, we ate at a place called Lucy's 4... It looked a bit sketch from the outside, but the food was amazing! It was Mediterranean style; the portions are really small, so you order about 10 dishes and just share them all. We finished everything off with buying a couple of tubs of ice cream and sharing them between us all. Even though it began on a Thursday, it was the official start of ice cream Tuesday. And then the fire alarms went off, about three times that night. About the third time, we all just kind of stayed asleep. They had been working on the electrical system earlier that day and they were just malfunctioning.

Friday, we did more hiking. We ended up at Dove Cottage, one of Wordsworth's residences. It was really interesting to learn more about him. After, we hiked up to his other home, Rydal Mount. While not as grandiose as Chatsworth, it was extremely beautiful. It was high up enough that you could see a lot of the surrounding countryside. It rained nearly the entire time, but the gardens were beautiful. They were a little bit more wild than the others we've seen. I actually wouldn't go with wild, but maybe more natural. The others weren't unnatural, but you could see the hand of the gardener in it more. We stayed the night at a nearby hotel. Dinner was really good! I had black pudding, and roast beef with yorkshire pudding. It was all extremely good! That evening was really funny too! We happened to be staying at the hotel with the Corby Town Football Club. Hahaha, an entire soccer team thinks how lucky they are to happen to be staying at a hotel the same time with an all-girls university group. Too bad for them the university happened to be BYU! They weren't bad people at all, but just with different standards. We kept getting notes from them in our room to the effect of wanting us to come over and hang with them. Again, too bad for them that we were from BYU.

Saturday was pretty much just traveling back to the London Centre. It was a long drive; nothing much really happened. I  have to go to church, but I'll try to update for this last week soon!

Well.. Week 2?

So, I've been lazy/busy (funny how that works out) and haven't updated this in about a week. Sorry about that! It was a really good week though! To begin with, I have found my new favorite candy bar(s). It's a tie between the toffee crisp and a fudge whipped chocolate bar... :D Happiness in chocolate form.  (For the record, it was an assignment from my relief society president).

Well, Sunday was fun/ tiring. We went to our first meeting in our new ward. I'm in the Whitechapel ward that meets waaaaaay out in the boonies. It's not too hard to get to, it's just long, maybe a 45 min tube ride/walk. So far it's been pleasant weather though :) Nice and cold, with the occasional rain drizzle. Our ward is so nice though! It's really small, but I love the leadership. The bishop's wife is the nicest lady ever. She informed us that she is not to be known as "Sister Bishop/ Sister Odoi", but very emphatically as "Vida". I like her all ready. This Sunday (today, not last week) was nice too. It was kind of funny getting there-- I didn't know we stuck out so much! We were passing by a group of people (dressed nicely; like Sunday dress; I didn't even really notice) who greeted us with a "Have a good meeting Sisters!". I think it is a safe assumption that they were members... Anyway, we also got our callings. I'm in nursery!! For those of you who laugh, I'm excited! I love working with little kids. A lot of time they are preferable to adults.

Monday... was nice. I don't remember much about the day; I think we just had class. (Some friends and I did wake up at 5 and went to the Westminster Bridge by Big Ben and watched the sunrise. That was cool, but early). The evening was fun though! Our group got tickets to the Proms (an English musical arts festival, not a dance) in the Albert Memorial Hall and got to listen to a concert by the Pittsburgh philharmonic. It was so beautiful! The music was amazing and the venue was one of the most beautiful I've seen! I'll get a picture up sometime. The return trip was really kind of annoying, starting with us taking the right bus, in the wrong direction. Thankfully, sort of, in a rather amusing way, we ended up having the same bus driver on the return trip, so he let us on without having to pay for another ticket. BTW, none of you are allowed to mention this to anyone.

Tuesday, was also awesome! Class again-- we turned in our first art projects. I liked one, but not the other. This time in the evening, we went to a rendition of Richard III, in the Old Vic theater, with Kevin Spacey as Richard. It was a modern adaptation, (I never like the modern adaptations as much... Sorry) and it was really good! The acting was beautiful; you could tell that the actors were really skilled and had put a lot into the performance.

Wednesday was the walks class... Wasn't too bad.... Not as killer on the legs as the other days were. Another recon visit.

Thursday was pretty cool! Peter, our art professor, had arranged with the British museum to take out some of their private collection to let us look at. We got to see several amazing pieces (all originals!), my favorites being the ones by Michaelangelo, and one by Andrea del Verrocchio. I was really inspired! I actually ended up changing my 480 (studio class) proposal to one being basically about figure studies. Peter said he could arrange for me to come back and study the pictures, as well as some others, alone for hours on end. Mind blowing! Hahahahaha! At this point, just fill in a series of excited responses :D.

Friday and Saturday were nice and casual. Went out and did stuff, but nothing grand or exhausting. Okay, well, it was exhausting, but nothing fancy. Worked on some artwork.

Anyway, it's late, and we head out on our Northern trip (Scotland here I come!) tomorrow, so we'll talk to you later!

Day 4 and 5

Well, we are still on recon missions, except with class mixed in. Sorry for not keeping up too well with what is going on. Flybys are difficult to write about! Our flybys on Friday were actually pretty laid back- we got a choice between going to the Tate Britain (not Modern) and going to Regents Park, near King's Cross, or both. The girls I went with decided to just go to Regents Park. Unfortunately, King's Cross is closed right now (for renovations?) so we didn't even get to visit. The park was really nice though! I think I like Hyde/Green Park a bit better though. It was nice to get to just sit, instead of running around constantly; well, for an hour at least. Before the flybys we had our first classes. It really was just syllabus work, but we got some projects assigned and it ended up taking the entire morning. That evening, we all went grocery shopping. While we normally get breakfast and dinner here, we don't on Saturday. 

Saturday, today, was a bit delayed. It ended up being "art supply" shopping day. One of the girls and I went to a shop, (F. Cornelissen) that was really amazing, probably the best store ever. It was exactly like Olivander's, except with art supplies! I ended up breaking down and getting a nice set of pastels :) Anyway, we all had to go into town for it, which is fun but time consuming. I'm actually getting pretty good at navigating the tube, not that it takes a lot. It's actually really really easy. While walking back, Karen and I ended up stopping at Portabello Road. It was a lot of fun! I've had the song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks stuck in my head all day. The scenery doesn't look much the same, but the principle is exactly alike. I tried to get myself to work on an art project this evening, but I'm having a hard time really dedicating myself to school just yet. There are projects I want to work on, but they aren't necessarily the ones I need for class. If I can figure out how to post pictures (which is why I haven't btw) then I'll post my projects once I get finished.  We all finished off the evening by going to Wagamamma, a really good faux Asian food place. As far as food goes, it was pretty darn good.

At this point, I really should be asleep, so good night!

Day 2 and 3.. Ish

So, I'm a little bit confused, timing wise. I basically lost a day, what with the long flight and the 7 hour time change. In any event, the first few days have been a blur. A few things have stood out, however.

First of all, getting here was just as interesting as getting to the hotel. I forgot to mention that when I arrived at the hotel (day 1), my room was on the 3rd floor, check in was on the 1st floor, and the elevator was broken. YAY! Imagine something along those lines arriving in London. I ended up being on the same flight as one of my classmates, so we hired a cab together to get to the London Centre (oh yes, another cabbie story). You know how London cabbies are famed for knowing every little detail about the city? Yeah, not so much. Our cabbie ended up taking us to Kensington Court, not Palace Court. We ended up walking around (with our luggage), and running into the Iranian embassy, being guarded by a bobby (police).  We asked him for directions and found out that Palace Court was on the other side of the nearby park, about a 10 minute walk. Trick was, we still had all our luggage, and I must mention that the airline smashed the bottom of one of my suitcases, so the pegs were missing and I ended up losing a wheel and having to drag the thing. It was kind of cool though because the park ended up being the embassy park, so we walked past the Israeli, Kuwait, Russian, Norwegian, Romanian, and half a dozen other embassies that I can't remember on the way. I would have gotten pictures, but it wasn't allowed. I didn't feel like being shot and/or arrested. I had enough issues with my luggage. Oh, oh, oh, it gets better! (I'll mention now that I wasn't really annoyed throughout all this-- there wasn't a point... It was more like a "Really?... Urngh" morning). We finally get to the London Centre, and it turns out that I am in dorm 4. You'd think fourth floor at most. Nope... There are a couple of floors devoted to bathrooms/classrooms first. So I am on the 6th floor. No lifts. Luggage.  Hahahaha! I will be very fit by the end of this.  I'll have to post a picture of it all soon.

Anyway, the rest of that day and yesterday, our professors wanted us to have a fly by of everything nearby, so we've walked about 10 miles in the last two days. We stopped by Trafalger Square three or four times, swung by the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Buckingham Palace, etc, but we didn't really stop. It was just a lay of the land kind of few days. We're supposed to continue today, but we do have class first. I've got some pictures to put up, but like I said, class. Update in a bit!

Day 1 (Sort of)

Well, I'm not actually in London yet. I have a 24hr layover in Chicago. Rather then spend the night at the airport (which wouldn't have worked out anyway because they only allow you to check your luggage all the way through if your flights are right next to each other, or if your flight is the last or first of the day, so I had to go pick it all up), I'm at a hotel for the night. It was "fun"getting to this point. I ended up getting to the airport later than I had hoped, and then my confirmation code wouldn't work. I was trying to stay upbeat and chipper throughout it all, but it's not easy when everything has the potential to end disastrously (i.e. missing my flight). I eventually got through however, with 12 minutes to spare... YAY!

The actual flight itself wasn't bad... A few moments of turbulence, but that's it. Really all it did was wake me up from a nap. The lady next to me... Not so much. She kinda freaked out a bit, and then when drinks came around I noticed she went straight for the drink if you catch my meaning. Nice lady though.

Interesting fact-- the first ever McDonald's is about a mile away from my hotel. Apparently they've made it into a sort-of museum (learned this from my cab driver... Very nice man. Just put his oldest in Southern Illinois University... Good for him!). Other than that? Worked on my first assignment for class, read The Loss of the Creature, by Walker Percy. Very interesting actually. I didn't agree with all of his points, and certainly not under all circumstances, but an engaging read all the same. I'll write more on that later (seeing as I still have to write a response paper on it), but for now, I'm tired... Good night!