Churchill and Anne Boleyn

Wednesday was our second-to-last day trip (seriously I can't believe how fast this trip has gone!).  Our destination: Chartwell and Hever Castle.

Chartwell was the home of Winston Churchill (adult life, not birthplace).  The night before we went, Professor Holland showed the movie The Gathering Storm to anyone who was interested.  The movie followed the time just before the start of the WWII, when Churchill knew what was coming but no one believed him.  I learned a lot about Churchill, especially because before watching the movie, I hardly knew anything about him except that he was the Prime Minister during the War, what he looked like, and that I hear his quotes on occasion.  A few things I learned from the movie and also from our tour at Chartwell: #1- he had an American mother, #2- he loved to paint, and his house is filled with his paintings, #- he was quite a bit older when he came to office than I thought (66?)

The house and grounds were beautiful.  They were not ornate, a little more modest, but beautiful just the same (it actually seemed more realistically livable than some of the other places we've been).  Some pictures (there are tons because I'm having fun playing with my camera):

View from one of the landings

I don't know if you can tell, but these leaves are GIANT!

Our next stop was Hever Castle, the home of the Boleyns (as in Anne Boleyn who got beheaded by Henry VIII, the Boleyns from the movie The Other Boleyn Girl, etc).  We toured through the castle, when through the hedge-maze, walked around the grounds, and even fed ducks. 

Standing on the bridge over the moat

These bushes are supposed to be shaped like the chess pieces used during the time of Henry VIII, and the thing in front of it is supposed to be some kind of astronomical-measuring-thing.

Katie "communing with nature"

Big Ben at Night

Thursday night we decided to finally take a look at Big Ben at night. I didn't take that many pictures, but we walked around big Ben and the Parliament Building, and Westminster Abbey. It was really pretty.

Do you remember the big fight scene in Big Ben on The Great Mouse Detective?  That's what I kept thinking of.

We decided that this is a truly terrible picture of everyone (Stephen, Jacki, Dave, and Katie).  Haha.  I think our favorite though would have to be Dave's face:

Rachel and Me

Me and David

Ode to the Tube

I have yet to explain my love for the Tube.  I love the Tube.  Love love.  Even though most of the time it's really crowded and noisy and sweaty, it gets me everywhere.  With a swipe of my "Oyster" card, I am free to travel beneath the city of London.  Okay enough of that.  Really, I just think it's a cool system and I'd really like to know more of the history behind it.  And also, for some reason it's kind of empowering to me when I decide to go somewhere by myself and navigate just fine.

A Fitting Quote

(One of the books I read at home at the beginning of Summer was Charles Dickens' Bleak House (well.. I read part of it, I didn't get quite to the end).  This quote is my life right now):

"London was a great wonder to us, and we were out for hours and hours at a time, seeing the sights; which appeared to be less capable of exhaustion than we were."

Oh, how I love Dickens.

Hot Hot Hot

Ever since we got back to London, it has been insanely hot!  Well.. not hot like Arizona-115-degrees hot (I think it's only gotten in the early 90's), but here's the thing: it's humid here, which also wouldn't be a big deal, except that we don't have air conditioning! aahhh!  I think it's supposed to cool down soon hopefully because right now this is kind of gross.  We're all perpetually sweaty. 

Recitation #1

For my literature class I had to memorize a 14-line English poem (from the Romantic or Victorian period) and recite it to the class.  Here was my choice:

Sonnet 32 from Sonnets from the Portuguese

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The first time that the sun rose on thine oath
To love me, I looked forward to the moon
To slacken all those bonds which seemed too soon
And quickly tied to make a lasting troth.
Quick-loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe;
And, looking on myself, I seemed not one
For such man's love!—more like an out-of-tune
Worn viol, a good singer would be wroth
To spoil his song with, and which, snatched in haste,
Is laid down at the first ill-sounding note.
I did not wrong myself so, but I placed
A wrong on thee. For perfect strains may float
'Neath master-hands, from instruments defaced,—
And great souls, at one stroke, may do and doat.

King Lear

In the tradition of our readings of Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice, a bunch of us sat down after dinner for our newest assignment, King Lear.  The length of the play and the fact that we don't have to have it read until Thursday accounted for the gradual dropping off of everyone.  By Act III we were down to three people.  By Act IV and V there were only two of us, exhausted from reading the lines, and sick of putting feeling into them, but we just really really wanted to get it done.  So, after 3 hours and 45 minutes and the deaths of most of the major characters in the tragedy, we finished!

I'm looking forward to seeing King Lear at the Globe Theatre next week.

Art and Manuscripts

Yesterday (Monday) we had class in the morning, and then I devoted my afternoon to museums:  the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, and the British Library.  I had assignments in Shakespeare and my literature class to go see some paintings (I put pictures I found online of them here).  It was just SO cool to see these famous paintings that I've seen for years in textbooks and on PowerPoints in class in real life.  

National Portrait Gallery

(Queen Elizabeth)

National Gallery

(Erasmus)

("The Ambassadors"- the cool thing about this painting, is do you see the weird distorted shape on the bottom?  It's a skull, and although it looks weird from the front, if you go around to the right side next to the wall and look at the painting, it looks normal)

British Library

This was definitely my favorite part of the day.  The British Library has an exhibit with a bunch of original books and manuscripts: the Guttenburg Bible, the first Shakespeare folio, an ancient Chinese acupuncture chart, the Magna Carta, a Wycliffe Bible, manuscripts of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hardy, Wordsworth, written out song lyrics of the Beatles, and my favorite part: music manuscripts of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Mendlessohn.  I spent most of my time studying the manuscripts, and to be completely honest, I kind of got emotional.  I'm so grateful for music, the power of music, for these composers who wrote what they did.  I miss having so much of my life devoted to music.  

Teaching Relief Society

Sunday was a first for me: Teaching Relief Society!  Although I am most definitely the youngest (and it's just me and Lauren from BYU in our Relief Society, and I wouldn't be surprised if we were even the only ones under 30), I taught the lesson.  The topic was President Monson's talk from Priesthood Session from this past conference, "Examples of Righteousness".  I prepared for a super long time on Saturday, and it went well.  

So, it was pretty obvious that I got really behind on my blog due to the North trip and not having internet for a week, being crazy busy, and maybe a little bit of laziness.  haha.  Result: Blogging ALL afternoon.  And now I'm almost caught up.

Sunday night we had a "Singing Fireside" here at the Center.  People would volunteer to share their favorite hymn and why, and then we would sing it.  I was at the piano.  It's incredible to me how easily music can bring the Spirit. 

Shopping and Ballet

"Portobello Road, Portobello Road

Street where the riches of ages are sold..."

Does anyone else know that song?  I think it's from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and I think the guy that sings it is also the dad on Mary Poppins, but don't hold me to that.  Anyway, guess what?!  The Portobello Road is in the neighborhood.  Every Saturday, all the vendors and people come out, and there is so much stuff!  Antiques galore, jewelry, second-hand clothes, fruit, vegetables, pastries.  The road seems to go on forever, and I spent an hour and a half there and didn't even make it very far down.  It was pretty fun.  I bought a necklace that looks really old and cool.  I wish you all could see it.

Next stop: Primark!  Primark is this humungous store on Oxford Street that kind of reminds me of Forever 21 back home, except it's really cheap and I've never seen any place so crowded before.  Almost all the girls here have been coming back with huge bags of clothes, and so I decided it was about time to check it out.  I wasn't disappointed, even with a 30 minute wait to try on clothes.  (Tara, Steph, and Mia, I think you guys would keel over with joy if you ever set foot inside.)

Saturday night was Giselle, a ballet from the Romantic period.  The set was beautiful, the dancing was beautiful, but what I enjoyed most was the music... I miss being in an orchestra. 

Last Day Up North

The plan for Friday morning in Ambleside was to go to Hilltop Farm, the home of Beatrix Potter. Unfortunately, it was closed that day (and all of us that have seen the movie "Miss Potter" were especially sad). New plan: some of us went on half a hike, walked around town and found a place to place Bocci Ball (very fun), ate lunch, and then couldn't find the bus where we were supposed to meet to go home... oops. So, we were late, and I absolutely hate being late so I felt so bad.  But, it all worked out, and we drove home through the afternoon and evening and finally made it back to home sweet home: 27 Palace Court.  I think we were all surprised at how good it felt to be back in London and how much it really did feel like home.

A waterfall we saw on our hike

We were SOOOO sick of the bus!

The North trip was SOO much fun, but I definitely still like London best and am glad to be back.  Sadly, we are now down to three weeks!

The Lake District: Part 1

We got on the bus bright and early Thursday morning, bid farewell to Scotland with bagpipe music playing on the bus, and drove about three hours over to The Lake District. First stop: Dove Cottage, home of William Wordsworth for a few years, in the town of Grasmere. We took a tour through the little house, and it was surprisingly really dark and tiny, although it was quite an expensive house at the time. Wordsworth paid the money to live there so that he might be out in nature to help him write his poetry. One such poem, that is pretty famous, is "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (written in the early 1800s):

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars

that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not be gay,

in such a jocund company:

I gazed- and gazed- but little thought

what wealth the show to me had brought:

For of, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

So, I didn't see any daffodils, but I saw the "vales and hills", I sat "beside the lake" and "beneath the trees" in the "bliss of solitude" and saw the "couch" on which he lied.  For heaven's sake, if I lived in the beauty of the Lake District, I feel that I could be a poet too.  It was beautiful, and I was so busy soaking everything in that I forgot to take pictures, except for Wordsworth's house (I'll just have to steal some from my friends).

Dove Cottage

Another plus at Grasmere was their famous home-made ginger bread.  SOO good. 

We hopped back on the bus and drove a few miles down to Ambleside, another town in the Lake District where we stayed at a hostel.  First thing we did after checking in was change into our swimsuits and jump into the extremely freezing freezing lake.  I was probably in for 3 minutes tops.  After, I read on the grass by the lake, ate dinner, and then me and some friends walked into town.  My friend David's last name is "Lake", so of course he was thoroughly enjoying the "Lake" District, with all of the Lake roads and signs.

"Lake" Lovers... of course we had to get a picture (Megan, David, and Me)

After our walk into town, we spent some more time just laying on the grass outside next to the lake and soaking in the beauty.  What a wonderful day.

The Royal Mile

Talk about an exhausting day. I got up bright and early (downstairs at 6:15) with only some of the group to go on a hike up to "Arthur's Seat".  It was a short but pretty steep hike up, and then Dr. Holland gave us a short devotional about the history of the church in Great Britain.  I'm so glad I got up early because it was definitely worth it.  I wish I had taken better pictures, but it's so hard to capture what I saw.

Next (a couple hours later), was our tour of Edinburgh castle.  I liked it better than the Tower of London.  First of all, it's on top of this mountain and it's just so gorgeous everywhere.

This is kind of a dark picture, but it's what the castle looks like from far away

Katie and I aren't quite sure that we would like to be prisoners in Edinburgh castle.

After a few hours at the castle, we started our journey down "The Royal Mile", the street in between the castle and the Holyrood Palace.  Some things we saw on the way:

St. Giles Cathedral

I've already talked about how I'm obsessed at looking at the architecture of old cathedrals.  Yep, I'm still obsessed.

I heart stained glass

A statue of Adam Smith with a pigeon on his head

Adam Smith is basically known as the father of the American economic system.  Ever heard of "The Invisible Hand", or The Wealth of Nations?  Yep, that's Adam Smith.  And this is where he is buried:

After our unfortunate failed attempt for Chocolate Soup, we found out the real address and headed there for lunch.  None of us even actually got the Chocolate Soup specialty, but my milkshake was definitely good (ps my face is ridiculous)

Outside of the Holyrood Palace, the royal residence in Scotland since the 15th century.  It's still used now during the summer by Queen Elizabeth (II).  We got to walk through some rooms that are still used today, as well as some that were used by previous royalty and are now preserved in the same state they were in.  No pictures allowed, but a one-word description I would give is ornate.

Behind the palace were the ruins of an Abbey

I love love love daisies.

This statue was in the garden.  I think it's kind of funny because he doesn't really seem to have a nose

Ok, so we were pretty much exhausted by this point, but we wanted to get all the way back up the hill of the Royal Mile to go to some old bookshops we had heard about.  So... we gave up about a pound each and just took a taxi. haha.

(the back half of us: Stephen, Me, and Molly)

I wish I had a picture of the bookshops we went in.  They were pretty cool and they had some crazy old books.  I ended up buying an old copy (unfortunately I don't know the publishing year) of a Sir Walter Scott novel (which I thought was fitting since we had just gone to Abbotsford).  

For dinner we went to a "Chippy" recommended by Dr. Holland.

Fish and Chips have never been so greasy, yet never so good:

Jacki and Me with our fish and chips

After dinner we decided to stop by "The Elephant House", which claims to be the "birthplace of Harry Potter", as JK Rowling wrote down her first ideas of Harry Potter on a napkin while eating here.

We ended the night by finding a park and just chillin' on the grass.  It was the perfect ending to such an exciting, but exhausting, day.