Glastonbury, Stourhead, and Bath

Today we went on a day trip to Glastonbury, Stourhead, and Bath. They were all really cool and beautiful places. First, in Glastonbury, we went to the ruins of an old Cathedral. When it was standing, it was longer than St. Peter's in Rome, and larger overall that St. Paul's in London!

Jumpin' around the ruins

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This guy's face was so cute, I wanted to look just like him

After the ruins, we went to climb alllll the way up to the Glastonbury Tor. This was a what people call a "thin place." A thin place is somewhere where people believe the veil between heaven and earth to be particularly thin. The building is called the Tor. It is up on a big hill that gives a beautiful view of all of Glastonbury. It was quite the little trek up there, but it was worth it!

This is the flat 5 girls with the Tor!

I love this picture. What a beautiful view! And this doesn't even do it justice at all!

Niki and I making up after our first fight about Cadbury chocolate. Love that girl!

After leaving Glastonbury, we went to the Stourhead gardens. They were UNBELIEVABLE! Soo beautiful I can't explain. I could have spend an entire day there wandering around. They filmed the scene in Keira Knightly's Pride and Prejudice here where Darcy proposes for the first time. It was insanely pretty, and I want to go back so bad!

Stourhead Gardens

Ali, Hillary, Laura, Niki, and Brittany

This is where they filmed the scene. It had a beautiful view of the lake below.

Oh, and there was an inn there too. Umm...who was in charge of choosing the name?

Then, to end the day we went to Bath. It was such a beautiful city. I will be going back with my mom for a day thank goodness! We went and saw the Abbey, but we couldn't go in because of a graduation. We also saw the Roman Baths there. They were way cool. When the Romans occupied this land they built some of their community baths, and they are still there. Very cool!

The Bath Abbey

The Roman Baths with the Abbey in the background. So much history in one sight!

Oh yeah, we got some cookies too. Yummy!

The Suit.

Today was very uneventful. So I wasn't going to post anything today. So this is me not posting something.

One thing special happened today. I went to Hobbs London and tried on these dress pants. Not gonna lie, I looked pretty darn good in them. Then they gave me some shoes to try on. They looked pretty darn good too! THEN they threw a suit jacket at me, and that looked amazing! I was just loving them dressing me up! I stared at myself in this wonderful suit for a long time. I looked good.

Then I broke the hearts of all the sales ladies because the suit costs a total of $500. Sigh, my own little Pretty Woman moment...without the money.

War. And Gelato.

So this week I am one of the chosen few who have the privilege of being on the kitchen crew. Everyone does it for one week while we are here, and I am assigned this week! It's not bad. Just bringing food out for breakfast and dinner and helping clean up afterwards. The bad part is that I have to be there at 4:30 for dinner and stay until about 7:00 cleaning up! That doesn't leave much time for play when I don't get out of class until 1:00 PM! However, I usually find something to do, thanks to my roomie, Laura, who is great at planning our days!

Today we went to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth. It was very interesting. One of the classes I am taking is a World War I class, so this was interseting to witness. Also, my great grandfather on my mother's side fought in WWI in France, living in the trenches and fighting with bayonetts! If you know anything about WWI, it doesn't get more risky than that. I have felt such respect for him as I have learned about what they went through. They had display about what it was like in the trenches. It even smelled awful. But I could only imagine what it was really like adding on the mud and even worse smells of B.O., death, rats, and all the other awful things they went through.

I have three papers due by Saturday, so I haven't been going on great day long adventures like I wish I could. So when we came home we all went into the library to work on homework. Later, we went to this cute gelato place around the corner and chatted. I am so lucky I have the best roommates ever! I cry everyday...from laughter! It is so much fun being here!

Catford Ward, Wandsworth Stake

Today was my first day at my ward I will be attending for the rest of my stay here in London. I am going to the Catford Ward in the Wandsworth London Stake. I go to church in the cutest town ever; it's called Blackheath. Apparently the houses are reeeally expesive (about 4 to 5 million pounds!) It was the kind of community a person could only dream of living in!

The ward is wonderful. They were all so happy to see us there, and everyone greeted us saying, "Oh! Are you the BYU students!?!" It made me feel so welcome! I have a calling in the primary as a primary assistant. For anyone who has ever complained about working in primary, you will be grateful when I tell you about our primary. There is one lady in charge of pretty much ALL of the primary. She taught the lesson, then did sharing time, and singing time! Not only that, she has a 2 week old baby! She took one week off and is already back! AND not only that, her husband is the bishop! I was so impressed, and so happy that I can be there to help out in anyway I can, even if it's just keeping kids quiet and holding the baby. Next week my friend Maegan and I will be teaching the younger kids their lesson. I also will be assigned a time to speak in Sacrament meeting as well.

The people there amazed me so much. There were people from all over the world and all walks of life in this one ward, and I could just tell how much they love and depend upon one another. I somewhat feel that since I am from Salt Lake where the church is centered, they look up to me. But it really is the complete opposite. These people were so strong and had some much love and I look up to them so much!

Other than going to church, I came home and napped, then helped make dinner (lasagna, bread, salad), conducted the fireside, and chatted with friends. Our fireside was about sacred spaces throughout Christian history and was really interesting! We learned about finding the different parts of a cathedral and learning what they were for!

Sorry no pictures today! Don't worry, I will be sure to take some one Sunday, and be sure to take some of the centre where I live too!

Love Never Dies.

Today, like most days in London, was awesome!

First of all, I slept in. Is there a better way to begin a day than that? It was marvelous. Then we cleaned up around the room. PS - here is our room! We call it, "the penthouse" because it is up on the top floor (83 steps to be exact).

My roommates are so happy I put this up, I'm sure.

Next we went off to Leicester Square to figure out what show we wanted to see today. I will tell you what we ended up doing in a minute. After that, we wandered over to Camden Market. Apparently there is some good stuff there...but we didn't really find it. As my roommate, Niki, says, "I felt like I was in Tiajuana!"

Then, after leaving Camden Market, we headed over to the British Museum to see the Parthenon Frieze for a class. It is so cool to see all these things, and it makes me wonder what has happened to them to damage them.

Also, in the British Museum was the Rosetta Stone! How cool is that!?! We found it was nearby where we were, so we went to find it. We couldn't find it after searching and searching. Come to find out we had been passing right by it! I have no clue how we missed it right in the center of the room surrounded by people! It was way cool to see too. The picture isn't so good, because the glass glared.

After the British Museum, we went over to the British Library to see some old Bible manuscripts for another class I am taking. We didn't have much time to spend there, but I will for sure be going back! It was so crazy all the things I saw. I saw original manuscripts and other things from...

Jane Eyre manuscript

Jane Austen manuscripts

Jane Austen's writing desk

Wordsworth Poetry manuscripts

Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway manuscripts

Handel's Messiah manuscripts

Oscar Wilde's manuscript

Beethoven's music

Beethoven's tuning fork

Gutenburg Bibles

Eadui Salter from Canterbury (from the 11th century!)

After we left the British Library we met up with a bunch of girls for dinner before we all went to our shows. Then I went and saw the brand new Phantom sequel by Andrew Lloyd Weber called, "Love Never Dies." It just barely opened a few months ago, and is only showing in London. It was seriously amazing. I started crying at the end of it. If you know me at all, you know that I do not cry in movies/plays. And this made me cry. It was so good. I wish I could say what happens, but I can't. It would ruin it, and you wouldn't believe me if I told you!

Canterbury & Cambridge

Today was our first day trip. We first went to the town of Canterbury. This was such a cute town and had soo much history. First we went to the ruins of St. Augustine. There was a big cathedral here, but when King Henry VII came into power he organized the Church of England and decided to get rid of all the cathedrals that might be considered Roman Catholic. This was called dissolution. It is so sad to think of all the things that have been destroyed from this. Jane Austen wrote of this saying, "King Henry VIII is going to beautify England with many great ruins." She was being ironic of course, and I'm not sure if that is the exact quote, but it's close enough!

Next in Canterbury we went to the Cathedral that is there now. It was so incredible. The ceilings are so amazing. There is a story in this cathedral about a man named Thomas Becket. He was the arch bishop there hundreds of years ago, and he got on the bad side of the King at the time. It was over whether the king had power over the church or if the church was independent. So long story short, the king sends 4 knights to Canterbury to kill Thomas Becket. They find him in the cathedral and kill him in his own cathedral. Then people would pilgrimage here from all over to come see then now St. Thomas's remains and in hope of miracles.

This is the monument to St. Thomas Becket

Next, after leaving Canterbury, we went off to the town of Cambridge, home of Cambridge University. It was a way cool town. It felt like an old time town and was surrounded by this moat. The college has been there for 800 years! How crazy is that?? When we got there we wanted to go see King's College or Trinity College, which are the most famous, but they were closed! So we went to their museum and went into another smaller college, and looked in shops in the town. Then our professor found us and told us that there is a service done in King's College Cathedral with the boy's choir so we went to that. It was so amazing! They sounded so perfect, and in the cathedral with all the acoustics, it was incredible! These boys were about 8 years to teenagers and live at the college. They do these services two time a day! It was so great. My favorite song they sang was "Santa Maria," it was absolutely beautiful.

Kings College L to R: Laura, Laura, Me, Lauren, Hilary

The moat around Cambridge. You can rent those little boats and go "punting"

The Cathedral at King's College

Us in front of King's College...when it was closed.

And finally, we got back home and went to eat at Nando's. It was delish'.

T.L.C.

So today I gave myself some much needed tlc. I woke up and had to go do kitchen duty (bleh) at 7:45, so then I went to class after and got out at 1:00 pm. and went up to my room to figure out what to do! I ended up deciding to catch up on my reading for my classes. That happened for about a half hour and I fell asleep. 3 hours later...I woke up, and went to kitchen duty (bleh again) for dinner! I felt somewhat guilty doing that...but it felt great! I needed to rest!

After dinner, we went to the red carpet premier of Eclipse in London at Leicester Square. However, Edward, Jacob and Bella were not there, so we didn't really care much. The people there were INSANE! They were giving away these giant banner things and people were mauling the security to get them! After that, we wandered around toward Trafalgar Square, and happened to stumble upon a free concert for Canada Day! How great is that!? So we wandered around there for a while, and then made our way home.

I had a very slow and relaxing day...but it was just what the doctor ordered!

How awesome is London? I was just walking along the street and ran into a free concert for Canada Day!

This was at the UK red carpet premier for Twiling...after everything was over. What a mess!