The Temple and Ballet

Today started very early for me.  My roommates and I had an excellent idea to go to the London Temple and do baptisms...and of course it took us until our second to last day to make it there!  And oh what a journey it was!

We started out leaving the center at 6:30 AM!!!  We had to take the tube to Victoria Station, then buy a train ticket to Lingford, then get a cab to take us to the temple.  So we were doing pretty well on time, we made it to Victoria, bought tickets that were 17 POUNDS EACH (ouch!), and got on the train.  We sat on the train for about 5 minutes, and it left!  We sat there on the train talking about how great we are, and what a great thing we are doing, and how great we were on time, when I realized that the stop this train is headed for is LONGfield, not LINGfield!

We got up, looked at the map for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do, when an nice man handed us a piece of paper with the directions for what we need to do to get to Lingfield! How nice was that?  So we had to get off at the next stop, go back to Victoria, and find the RIGHT train.  When we got back, the next train to Lingfield was at 8:10.  We had been awake for almost 2 hours and we hadn't even left Victoria yet!

We finally got on the right train, got a cab, and made it there!  It was a great experience, and I am so happy we made the journey.  The London Temple is beautiful, and has about 40 acres of land that the church owns with beautiful paths and ponds with ducks and flowers...I loved it!

After we finished at the temple, we went to grab lunch for the last time together at one of our favorite spots by our house, Nandos!

Tonight we got tickets for English National Ballet's performance of Cinderella at the London Coliseum.  It was sooo fabulous!  The dancers were incredible, and so graceful!  I loved every second of it!

After we left the ballet, we were on our way home on the tube, when a lady stopped and started talking to us.  Come to find out, her family are from Nevada and are LDS!  She said she saw us and said to herself that she knew we were BYU students.  It was so funny!  Not only that, her son is roommates with a girl we live with's brother!  Small world!  It was a fun little incident that made us all happy that someone noticed us and thought we stood out in a good way!

High Tea at Kensington Palace

Today our whole group went to high tea at Kensington Palace!  We live just across the street so it was a quick little fun break from studying for finals.  It was super yummy, and we all had such a fun time!

By the way...this is a picture of me in front of my house in London!  We live right across the street from Kensington Gardens and right by Notting Hill.

Finals. Yucky.

Even in London, we have finals!  Can you believe it?  So I literally stayed inside ALL day writing essays for my WWI and Modernism class.  By the end of the night we were all so fried and everything was suddenly really funny.  Oh the joy of finals week!

Our Last Saturday Celebration

Today was our last Saturday together in London before everyone heads home.  So of course we had to go big!  But not too big because our bank accounts can't handle too much these days!

We started out the morning by going to Portobello Market.  This is the market that is in the movie Notting Hill, and it is VERY popular.  So if you are planning on going, go right at 9 AM when it opens so that you can beat some of the crowds.  They have a lot of fun antiques, food, music, and more!

We got some yummy fresh bruschetta to share on Portobello

Then we came back to the centre, dropped off our purchases, and headed out to do a walk we had assigned from a class.  We walked the path that Virginia Woolf described in her book, Mrs. Dalloway, which goes from Picadilly Circus down Bond Street.  This street rocks my socks!  Sooo many amazing stores!  We first stopped at Hatchard's Bookstore.  This is a very famous store and has been there since 1797!

Next, we went to Fortnum & Mason, which is a big time grocery store, and is where the Queen likes to shop!  It was really pretty and had red carpet all throughout the whole thing!  And this has been there since 1707!  (about 70 years older than my entire country...) 

Wanna eat some mice?

We then walked up and down the rest of the street, stopped in Tiffany's, Cartier, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuiton, Burberry - you know, just my regular shopping spots!

Later tonight, we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant called Masala Zone.  It was sooo delicious.  We ordered a dish for each of us where we got to pick a meat (chicken, lamb, veggie, etc) and then pick the curry to go with it, and then it came with some nan-type break, veggies, and different little sauces and things.  It tasted divine!

Then we walked around our little neighborhood for a while, and went and got gelato at a yummy place called Gelato Mio.  I got mint chocolate chip, which was flavored with real mint leaves!
But on our way there, I slipped while stepping over a puddle and ended up stepping INTO the puddle and got my yellow Toms all muddy!

Lastly, we came back home to the centre, and I wrote this blog!  London is such a fabulous city, and I am going to miss these fun Saturdays I have to go out and be in the city with my great friends I have made!  

Random Shots

So today was a fabulous day.  I GOT MY NEW CAMERA IN THE MAIL!!!  In case I haven't mentioned it, my camera broke about 5 days before I went to Paris.  Since then, I have been bumming off of other people to take pictures of me!  But today, my new camera finally came in the mail!  I'm not sure who's more happy, me or my roommates who no longer have to take my picture with their cameras?

Also, here are some random shots that I wanted to put up but didn't have until today:

My roommate, Laura, and I on the London Bridge

At Chatsworth.  I caught a little frog!

At Fountains Abbey.  We had A LOT of fun with these column things.

Portsmouth, Brighton, and Monk's House

So, today was our very last day trip with our whole group! *tear*  Our time together is quickly winding down.  We only have about a week and a half left!  Everyone will be leaving, but I will be staying here for a couple weeks with my mom!

For our day trip, we began at Portsmouth.  This is a harbor on the coast of England that houses a ship named Victory.  The Victory is a ship built in the 18th century that you can tour!  It was really neat, and really crazy to see how these sailors lived.

After leaving the ship, we went and looked through some cute little outlets near by.  My favorite one:  the Cadbury chocolate factory.  That's right.  A whole store of discounted Cadbury chocolate.  It was fabulous.

Now that is what I call a bar of chocolate!

We then left Portsmouth and went for a very short stop at Brighton while we were on our way to Monk's House.  We literally had just enough time to stop and look at the pier a little, take some pictures, and use the restroom of course!

We then went to Monk's House, which has no relation to monks whatsoever.  It is house owned by Virginia Woolf, and is a place were the Bloomsbury group would get together.  We have been studying the Bloomsbury group in my WWI and Modernism class, so it was really neat to be able to go and visit the places where they were.  Virginia Woolf committed suicide in this place, and her ashes were scattered here as well.  It was a neat house with beautiful gardens, as all English houses seem to have!

When we got off of our coach we had to take a picture with our great coach driver, Tony, who always had plenty of information about everywhere we drove to fill many books!

This is not about London

Today I was feeling sick.  So I have been lying in bed, not eating, watching Pride & Prejudice then Becoming Jane (I was in a sort of Jane Austen mood I guess).  I also wandered the internet and found this:


This is how I felt when I heard that CLOGS are coming back in.  I refuse!