A Week in London

Day 86

I live in the most beautiful place. And I'm probably going to cry when I have to leave London. And have occasional spasms of withdrawal for sometime afterward.

Saturday I went to Trafalgar Square. I love going to the squares, circuses, and parks on Saturday and watching all the people who come toe hang out.
It has the really cool lion monument to Admiral Nelson. People climb all over it and the lions (all four of them).I love London!


Our Primary kids our getting ready for the Nativity pageant. They're all so cute! But then our stereo broke, and I had to play the songs on the piano, but I only played to top hand, because I definitely can't play both hands and sing, and other people singing always throws me off. So that was fun, haha.

Wednesday saw us up at Chawton to see Jane Austen's house. Tracy is in awe over the table Jane Austen used to write on. There was a squeak in one of the doors that the family never fixed, as it warned Jane of approaching visitors, and gave her time to hide her writing under something before they came in.
Jane Austen's house! Yay!
I know we're English majors and all, so Austen's house ought to be like a Mecca or something for us... but I think our favorite part was the awesome playground across the street.
Those are the director's kids, by the way.
Danielle found boxes of crackers for a pound. Crackers of the English Christmas tradition variety.
Winchester Cathedral
It has cool floors.
King Arthur's Round Table! Or at least one of probably a couple dozen in Britain. King Arthur paraphenalia is pretty common in Britain. But this one's quite colorful.
That evening Tracy and I saw Billy Elliot, which is a musical about a mining town in northern England on strike during the administration of Margaret Thatcher, and the little boy who decides to be a ballerino (aka: s a danseur, or male ballerina) instead of a boxer, much to the dismay of his manly father. It did have some funny bits, but overall, I was a bit disappointed. Also, no one could actually dance, even though it was about dancing. Except for the one dream image of the ballerino boy's future self, who was an attractive young man who could actually dance and was beautiful to watch. But then the guy and the 12-year-old boy did a pas de deux together, and that was kind of strange.

I'm really starting to like all the girls in our program. It's going to be sort of weird to go back to Provo and not live with them anymore. Especially since I've spent the last four months, eating, studying, going to class, cooking, going to museums, riding on the bus and the tube, and running into them all over London.

Some times we dress up super cute :D The lovely ladies of Room 4.

Lindsay and I are scandalous in our new tights.
Thursday we went to this awesome Jewish synagogue. Apparently it's a grade one building (Britain grades their buildings?) which puts it in the same category as Westminster Abbey. It's a very unusually elaborate synagogue. It's also very beautiful, with stained glass windows, carved marble, and gold decorating. And it's hidden in the middle of London a block from the Centre.

Even though we were in London, we still celebrated Thanksgiving. For lunch we had a proper English tea at Kensington Palace's Orangery.
The awesome cucumber sandwich house looking things.
That evening we had our Thanksgiving feast with turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, marshmallow fruit salad, green beans, and pie. Mmmmmm. Honestly, what do people do without turkeys and indians?

We rounded off the day with The Lion King. I really wanted to go because Lion King was basically my childhood; I loved that movie. And the musical was awesome. In addition to be really colorful and energetic, it had cool African costumes and the most ingenious animal rigs. Seriously, every time a new animal came on stage I went, whoaaaa that's so cool! You should all see it if you ever get the chance. Behind Les Mis, it's probably my favorite musical. So fun.

Saturday Tracy and I went down Portabello, which is a way fun little street vendor shop. I got a really pretty amber and silver ring, made in Poland. We also decided to go to a pub for dinner.
Okay, so this is not actually the pub we went to. This one was ridiculously overcrowded with people watching the game. We went to one down the street called Bayswater Arms. It was fun. I enjoyed the atmosphere. Very friendly and relaxed. Too bad Mormons don't have pubs.

Later we went to the Christmas festival on the Thames. There were lots of pretty Christmas lights. And this cool booth that had lots of little wooden carved animals that actually made sounds that sounded like them, either by stroking a stick across ridges, or blowing into an opening or something. It was cool.

Afterwards we went to the Stake Talent Show and watched our awesomely talented stake, including some of the girls from our program in the African dress fashion show. Haha, they are so white. It was funny to see them in the crazy colorful African clothes. And then we went to the crepery down the street, which was very tasty, but a little expensive compared to France.

And then today on the way to church we had to go to three different train stations and get lost for like half an hour and spend and extra hour on the tube trying to get to church. But I made it eventually! Good thing too, because we were severly understaffed in Primary. And I got a new Temple Recommend, which is excellent news, since we're going to the London Temple on Friday, and my old recommend expired today. That would have been really depressing if I couldn't go.

Time is rapidly drawing to a close. It's been a good three and a half months.