It's kind of weird in England, because here it is only October, and they're already gearing up for Christmas. Halloween isn't much of a holiday here (which is sad to the point of almost being a crime, because Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I love carving pumpkins) and obviously, they don't have Thanksgiving (that's sort of a pilgrim and indian holiday) so it's on to Christmas. I hear November 5 gets fireworks though (that's the day Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament with the "Gunpowder Plot").
Sunday was the Primary program. The kids here are so cute! There's only like 8 of them though, so instead of 30 kids with a couple sentences each, they each have about 5 parts a paragraph long. I was conducting the music, and it went alright. I think the kids got really nervous, because they completely missed the first entrance, and rushed a lot on the first two songs, but then they got better. And I figure, no one really cares how good the Primary kids are. They just think they're cute anyway.
Monday we watched a movie called The Gathering Storm about Winston Churchill. It was really quite good. We also went to a reading of a play called Joyful Noise. It's about Handel, and the situations surrounding his writing of Messiah. It was really quite fascinating. A reading is just a bunch of actors reading the play punctuated with a few dramatic actions. Basically, they want to produce the play off of the West End, and they're trying to get money to do it, so they do a reading in front of people with money to try and pique their interest. We got invited because the playwright is a Mormon who teaches at University of Utah who knows one of our professors personally and needed more bodies to make the little theatre look full.
Tuesday we went to see Oedipus at the National Theatre with Ralph Fiennes (most of you know him as Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies). It was very dramatic. They did some interesting things with the production too, like having everyone in modern business dress, and having a stage, empty except for a set of giant doors, that slowly rotated around.
Today we went to Canterbury. Which I guess makes us pilgrims just like the rest of the people in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. This is the city of Canterbury.
Here is the outside of the Cathedral. And don't be deceived. You think it looks big here, that's actually about only half the length. Past that tree, it just keeps going.
It actually looks kind of like a Temple. Which makes sense, I suppose. Similar purpose and all.
The inside has beautiful vaulting and stained glass.
It was different from a lot of cathedrals I've visited. The architecture was not so simple. It had a lot more detail, and as you can see here, it also had pieces going crosswise that created a lot of interesting openings and shapes as you looked up. Also, rather than the whole floor being flat and on one level, there's a number of staircases all through the cathedral, leading upwards to the apse.
Canterbury Cathedral is of course most famous for being the site of the martydom of St. Thomast a Beckett. It was his death, and the subsequently reported miracles associated with his remains, that made the cathedral such a popular pilgrimage destination. This stone marks the location of Thomas' skull being quite brutally mangled by several swords.
Looking up from the center of the cross. It's really a very beautiful church.
Looking up the quire towards the apse.
An unusual and more recent stained glass window. I've never seen one with so much magenta colouring. And I really liked the light on the wall.
This candle marks the spot where the extremely elaborate bejeweled gold tomb of Thomas a Beckett stood for a long time.
Canterbury Cathedral is also the resting place of the Black Prince.
Typical England. Awesome old ruins in the middle of every day life. In this case, a parking lot behind the cathedral.
And of course the best part, we met Orlando Bloom!!
Okay, just kidding. He's actually a nice English boy named Jack who works at the fudge shop and unfortunately has a girlfriend. And yes, I did start up a conversation with "Has anyone ever told you you look exactly like Orlando Bloom?" and end it with "Umm, this is kind of wierd, but do you mind if I take your picture? I have this roommate who really likes Orlando Bloom..." so there you go Katie, just for you :D
Next we went to Chartwell, which is where Winston Churchill lived for many years. I'm beginning to like Churchill.
The house has excellent views. Unsurprising, considering Churchill's passion for painting.
The pond of fish. Churchill used to sit in that chair and feed them.
Golden Rose Garden
Among Churchill's many habits was bricklaying. Apparently. He built a good deal of this garden wall, as well as the playhouse for his daughters pictured below, called the "Mary-cot".
