Day 4

Today was a great day!! We had so much fun!!

First, I have to say congrats to my roommate, Krista Coburn now Mildenhall!! Congratulations! I love ya lots!

So many things happened today I hope that I can remember them all...

Borough Market:
Today we woke up early and went to Borough Market. To get there we crossed the London bridge, which we thought was pretty cool because it is the London bridge, but I was definitely more impressed with the Tower bridge. We took way to many pictures on the bridge. When we got to Borough Market we just ate and ate. There were tons of stands of cheeses, sausages, fruits, chocolates, pies, etc. We got Hot Chocolate that was basically melted dark chocolate. I had the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life! It had sourdough bread and some amazing cheese I had never tried, and onions and spices. We loved walking around trying samples and looking at all the different cheeses :)

Next to Borough Market we went to the Southwark Cathedral (pronounced suth-ick). It had beautiful arches and lots of glass windows that let in more light. It was a lot simpler than St. Paul's Cathedral, but it was really stunning. When we walked in we were greeted by one of the priests at the cathedral. He told us that it was the same cathedral that William Shakespeare had attended, and that his brother was buried there. Just like many other buildings in London it was destroyed by the Great Fire and was rebuilt by Christopher Wren. In the cathedral they also have a Harvard chapel. It is a chapel that is supported by Harvard graduates who live in London now. A few times a year they come and sing and get together at the cathedral. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures...

Tate Modern:
Tate Modern was an experience... I know now more than ever that I am not very fond of modern art. There were a few pieces that I thought were really amazing. I liked the realist exhibit the best because I thought that the paintings were so beautiful and didn't look like squiggly lines or patches of paint. I liked some of Dali's work also. Most things I had to read about to know why the artist did what they did, and sometimes after I read it I still didn't know why.... Apparently a white blob can be a horse, and a dot can be a butterfly... Not my favorite stuff to see. I tried really hard to look at everything and think about why it was there so that I could appreciate it more. I think it is good to see all kinds of art, but I am more excited to go the National Gallery soon!

Walks:
We walk everywhere!! It's great because of all the stuff I am eating :). I feel like I am still always hungry because we walk so much! Today we walked along the Thames. We saw the Globe theater and some small shops.

Primark:
Jaden and I discovered Primark today, and I am not sure if that is a good thing or not... It is like a ginormous Forever 21. We decided we can't go back until towards the end of our trip when we have hardly any money... But we had to buy rainboots and a bag and a headband... So I guess it was necessary...mostly.

Thai Food and the London Philharmonic Orchestra!
Jaden and Amanda tried their first Thai food tonight! It was so fun to go with them and watch them eat it for the first time! We weren't too adventurous and only got Pad Thai, but we are so going back! It was pretty good, but I like Thai Ruby in Provo just as much.

Right after Thai Ruby a big group of us dressed up and went to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra play at Royal Festival Hall. It was an amazing concert hall! It was one of the neatest ones I had ever been in. The lighting was so great and the acoustics were wonderful. The orchestra was absolutely incredible. They played some Mesaien, Beethoven’s first piano concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony. The pianist was wonderful on the concerto, but honestly my favorite was the second and third movement of the Tchaikovsky. It was not only so great to listen to, it was so much fun to watch! I loved that Jaden had never been to an orchestra concert either. She thought it was great. She’s informed me she is changing her major to conducting now. It was the highlight of both of our day.

Funny things that happened today…

·     - Today, Jaden and I were in Primark and sometimes we accidently slip into British accents. Sometimes it was really awkward and people thought we were making fun of them, but it was totally an accident.

·        I wore high heels to the orchestra tonight which does not mix well with cobblestones or even the sidewalks on the bridge. My shoe got stuck and fell off no less than eight times on the bridge. The wind was blowing like crazy at the same time, and I was having a war with my umbrella while this was happening, and it was pouring rain. Amanda and I were laughing the whole way there!

·      Jaden decided that her calling in life to now be a conductor. She was very inspired by the concert tonight. She has been practicing by shaking her arms in the air, pointing at random things, sniffing, and jumping at loud and important moments.

Pictures to come!

Day 3

I really want to put some pictures up, but our internet is awful! Still need to find a good internet cafe!

Last Night:
Last night we went to a pub (recommended to us by the twelve year old daughters of our professors). It is Bonnie Wright's (Ginny Weasley in Harry Potter) favorite pub. Apparently she is there all the time because she lives in the neighborhood right next to us. We got toffee pudding while we were there which was so good! It was a cake like food with dates in that was covered in toffee and chocolate. We ate it with ice cream, and Jaden and I pounded it in less than two minutes. They had some really amazing guitarist playing there also, so it was great entertainment as well!

Dish Crew:
Jaden and I are on dish crew till Sunday night, which makes dinner like a three to three and a half hour affair instead of just one hour. Let's just say we are so excited to be done...

Tower of London:
Today we went to the Tower of London which I have seen before, but I got to walk around different parts. We saw the white tower where we got to see all of the different armor. It was crazy! We got to try on a helmet and lift a sword and shoot an hour. I wonder what a battle in England must of looked like. First of all, you can't see a thing through the helmets. You can hardly walk in the armor, and you can hardly lift the swords. I bet everyone just looked so silly walking around swinging swords not able to see a thing! We also went to all the torture chambers which was sort of cool. They just showed us a bunch of stretchers and compressors (I had never heard of a compressor before).

Museum of London:
We went to the Museum of London which was a museum just about London's history. It was really neat to see the oldest things they had there all the way to things as recent as 2009. We saw tons of different clothes and jewelry and weapons and how things changed and progressed. I learned a lot about the Great Fire and the Black Death. I liked seeing the modern things as well because I have always thought of London as a city of the past. There are so many neat old buildings and so much history, but I never really think of it as people actually living there now. Next to the museum is the oldest piece of the London wall that the Romans built when they occupied London. It was incredible because it was so old! I think it dates back to 400 A.D.

Homework!!
I know it sounds silly, but for how much we are out and about I have no idea how I am going to do my homework. Plus it's really hard to be motivated here...

Preview for next week!
Next week we are seeing Matilda, Les Miserables, Twelfth Night, and Lion King! So excited!!!

More to come! Plus pictures soon...

Day 2

Classes:

Today was our first day of classes. I forgot I was going to be here taking classes... We only had class for an hour today and went over our syllabus. There is quite a bit of reading. I am going to be reading on the tube, in the bus, anywhere I can. We only have class eight or nine times over the semester, but each time we have it it is three hours long! A lot of our assignments are going and seeing things which is great! 

St. Paul's Cathedral:

We went to St. Paul's today which was so amazing! It is a huge building! I had no idea how big it would be. It has one large dome roof and three others further down. It almost looks like the building is cut in half. Half of the building is just white pillars and white carvings. The other half was "bejeweled" and was all different colors. I was so sad that I couldn't take pictures inside because it was so incredible!! 

One thing that I thought was interesting was that the architect, Christopher Wren was an astronomer and a mathematician. He was only 23 when he became a professor at Oxford. The first thing that they showed us was this spiral staircase which they called a geometric staircase because each stair was completed supported by the one underneath it. It was pretty incredible. It was the staircase used in the Harry Potter movies whenever they had a spiral staircase. They spent 10 days filming it and only used a couple minutes of it in the movie. The building was incredible!! It was so detailed. I would look it up so you can see what I am talking about! I was so tempted to pull out my camera and take pictures... 

In the cathedral they also have a chapel just for the American soldiers who died in World War II. They have stained glass windows with each state's flag on it. It was funny to see our beehive on stained glass window in one of the most famous buildings in London! They had tons of memorials all over in the cathedral. One memorial took longer than the cathedral to make. After I had seen the cathedral I had no idea why it would take so long to build one memorial because the cathedral was so impressive. 

During WWII they had people who put out bombs that fell on the building. One they missed and when it dropped it raised the largest dome which ways 65,000 tons six inches! It fell perfectly back into place. 

It was an amazing building! Tomorrow is the tower of London and we don't have class again till Monday :)

Random things...

Today I realized just how loud we are as we were walking around! Even in groups of two or three we are so loud! People just look at us and shake their heads. British people are just so much quieter when they talk.

The sinks in the bathroom are super weird. It has two knobs, one hot and one cold, just like here except it has two faucets also... So if you want warm water you just have to switch your hands back and forth between the two faucets in the sink. I don't really understand why you would do that...

Still getting over the jet-lag! Jet-lag makes the sleep deprivation I got over the school year feel like nothing...

I sat on the steps that are in Marry Poppins during the "Feed the Birds" song!

I am on dishcrew right now which means we prepare dinner and clean up after dinner. I had no idea how many dishes it takes to make food for and feed 50 people!

Day 1

So, I made it!!! The flight was long, but Jaden and I couldn't sleep at all. Then we arrived in London at 6:25 a.m. It has been a constant fight to stay awake all day! As of now I have been awake for 28 hours and have three more to go!! On my flight were 15 other people in my study abroad which was so nice. When we arrived at the Heathrow airport in London our shuttle wasn't there to pick us up so we had to wait for an hour in the rain, and then when the shuttle got there it took us an hour and half to get from Heathrow to the West End. When we got to the London center we were so happy to be inside again! We went up to our room which has four bunk beds, and then a wall of closets separating us from three other bunk beds. I share a bathroom with fourteen girls! Wahoo! (There is something worse than sharing a bathroom with six people...) It seems like it will be fun though to have a slumber party with super fun people each night! After we arrived our professors, the Masons, walked us around the neighborhood which includes Bayswater, Queen's Way, and Hyde Park (you can rent bikes to bike the two and half mile Hyde Park which has beautiful grounds). Somewhere in there I also bought tickets to Matilda the musical which has won tons of awards this year. I should be seeing that next week! We walked around some neighborhoods near the center that cost 3,000+ pounds per square foot to live in! It was crazy. It was also the rainiest day that London has had since January. We were soaking wet by the time we got back, but it sure kept us awake! The weather should be like that for the next two weeks (I am wishing I would have brought my rain boots!) Tomorrow looks like it should be great! We start classes, and start visiting some neat places!