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.

The first official weekend

Day 9

Friday we went to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (officially, Westminster Palace). It's absolutely enormous, considering all that's really important in there is the room where the House of Commons meets to debate. Britain puts a lot more into ceremony and tradition than Americans tend to. But it's actually all very cool. The building is built in a neo-gothic style, and it's incredibly ornate, you should see the cielings inside. It's connected to a hall that dates back from at least the 13th C, if not earlier (excuse my faulty memory). Apparently, the debates in the house of commons actually get pretty exciting. Maybe I'll have to come back and watch someday.
Afterwards we went for a walk down the southside of the Thames River. It's beautiful, will all the bridges and buildings. It was really fun too. We saw some people pretending to be statues, and some invisible men (the people had jackets with shoulders that went about their heads, and then hats wired to float above. We also saw a magician, who was really good. And we walked past this skate park under an overpass that was absolutely covered in the most amazing graffiti. I actually haven't seen too much graffiti in London, but this must have been the exception. There was also a lot of random modern art, including this awesome furniture.

If you've ever wondered why when someone's in jail you say they're "in the clink", it's because there actually was a jail in London called the Clink that's been around for a very long time and is now a museum.

This is a replica of the Golden Hinde, which I think was the first ship a Brit used to circumnavigate the world. A pretty picture of Southwark Abbey (pronounced suth-uck)

The Tower Bridge. I swear it belongs in Disneyland.
A picture of the Thames
Saturday we went to the famous Portabello Road. Apparently, it's the largest antique street market in the world. It's also a featured in a song in Bednobs and Broomsticks. We spent a couple hours wandering down (a part) of the road looking at all the old china, jewelry, pictures, books, keys, cutlery, and such. They had some awesome old skeleton keys, and I ended up getting a small one, which you'll all have to see some day.

We also found a Scottish shop where we tried on these really cool hats. We decided we'd never have an occasion to wear them anywhere, but we took a picture anyway.In the evening we went down to St. Martin-in-the-Fields at Trafalgar Square. Here it is at sunset. It's very popular in London to sit on the steps of well-trafficked areas.We saw a performance of Vivaldi and some other Baroque composers. The music was just beautiful. The sound was amazing. I loved it. I hadn't realized how much feeling Baroque music could have.

Today I went to my ward, Crystal Palace, for the first time. It's held in a school, and we have to take the tube, a train, and then walk to get there. I think the three of us students who went doubled the number of white people in the congregation. It's a very small ward, and everyone is African. I'm not sure what part they're from, but I heard Nigeria somewhere. Most of the members in London are converts, so it was a really different experience.

I also went down to the Hyde Park Ward in the evening to hear the CES Fireside by Holland. It was actually broadcast in the States last Sunday, but I would have had to be up at about 1:00 in the morning here to see it. It was well worth watching though. He talked about Joseph Smith's experience in Liberty Jail and how it was a "prison temple." Really an interesting thought. He was basically reminding people that we all go through very dark and difficult times, but that doesn't mean God has forgotten us. On the contrary, he is there with us, listening, "and when we weep, He and the angels of heaven weep with us." Never doubt that he is there, and it is often when things look the darkest that we come closest to God.

I can hardly believe I've only been here a week. I've seen and done so many things! And there's still so much to do. I don't know what people do when they only come for a week. I'm so glad I have months yet to look forward to!