Tower of London

Last Wednesday we had a group trip to the Tower of London, where we were able to participate in a tour guided by the Yeomen, the official guards of the tower. It was pretty cool to learn the rich history of the tower, and then see some of the armor and places where prisoners were held.

Stratford-upon-Avon.

Self-timer picture of me, Hailey, Ethan, Abbie and Kaleb.

On Thursday we had our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. We saw the cottage of Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare's wife) and the birthplace of Shakespeare. We went to the cemetery where Shakespeare is buried, and walked around and had a nice time hanging out. We met just after lunchtime to see Henry IV at the Old Courtyard Theater. It was a really good production, although most of us got a little sleepy in the middle. It was a fun day, and the play was cool.

Lord of the Rings

Amanda, Me, Alicia, Britney

On Wednesday night Sabrina, Amanda, Alicia, Britney and I went to the Lord of the Rings musical. It was an amazing play! The set and special effects were great. It was definitely the best set I've seen so far. The music is also really nice, and I'm probably going to get the soundtrack. We had really good seats for a good price. We were in the fifth row down in the stalls, so we were really close to the stage. It was a great experience.

Cold, no, freezing showers

I just thought I'd write a little post about the shower situation here... I'll start with a bit of an introduction. On Saturday evening when we arrived home from Scotland, everyone was thinking about a nice shower in our own bathrooms and stuff. Well we got home and were informed that the hot water wasn't working. There were signups on the doors to shower in the professors' flats, where the hot water was working. I just wanted a shower so badly, without any hassle, that I braved the cold water. This water isn't just lukewarm, or coldish, or even cold. It is like ice water. There isn't a drop of warmth in it. It hurts my head and makes it hard to breathe for a few moments, and some girls have complained about numb feet. The upside is that as soon as I get out and dry off, I feel so warm. So the hot water isn't fixed yet, and I have been taking cold showers this week. You just don't feel quite as clean, so I took a hot shower in one of the professors' flats once. It isn't a huge deal, and I'm really glad I'm here and stuff, but it a little difficult.

Arthur's Seat

At the top of Arthur's Seat. When we were up there waiting for the picture, it was really scary, because we could have easily blown off. We had to make sure we were hanging on tightly.

Loch Ness

Standing barefoot in Loch Ness! So freezing...

Edinburgh Castle

Amanda, Sabrina, Hailey, Me, Brittany

a wee little post about Scotland

First things first: I love Scotland. The atmosphere in Scotland was amazing- I just felt happy and free and everyone was so nice there, always asking about us and talking to us. It was like everyone wanted to be connected and they were, and I felt like being there made me a part of it.

Wednesday night we took an overnight bus to Edinburgh, and arrived around 8 on Thursday morning. Although the bus wasn't the nicest and it was hard to sleep, it was a great way to go because we were able to start our day bright and early. There were 17 of us, and we headed over to the Castle Rock Hostel, which is right next to Edinburgh Castle. We checked in and then split into groups and headed off. With the girls in my group, we spent the day exploring. We saw the castle, cool ruins, a cemetery, and checked out the shops and stuff. It was a lot of fun to just explore and walk around without feeling any rush.

On Friday we had a bus tour to Loch Ness planned. As soon as we got on the bus at eight that morning we knew it'd be great. We had a really fun tour guide, Bill, who kept us entertained between his jokes and his passionate love for Scotland. I learned so much about Scotland's history, and in an interesting way. The bus actually broke down just after we saw Loch Ness, but I didn't even feel like it ruined the day because it had been so good.

Saturday morning Hailey, Sabrina, Amanda and I went to breakfast at Chocolate Soup, where we had some delicious chocolate pancakes. They were wonderful! Hailey and I then hiked Arthur's Seat. It was a pretty long hike, and at the top the wind was crazy. Hailey and I really were holding on for our lives when we were at the top. It was so much fun. As we headed down, we stopped to lay in the grass and stayed for awhile. Altogether we spent a few hours up there, and when we came down, we had lunch and went to the National Portrait Gallery before we had to catch the bus to the airport.

Scotland was a fantastic trip, and I am so grateful I was able to go. I feel like I was able to learn a lot about the history of Scotland and something about the people, as well.

Leaving for Scotland!

I just thought I'd leave a little post since I'm leaving tonight for Scotland and I'll be gone through Saturday. I'm so excited and hopefully I'll have some fun posts up when I get back!

Chinese New Year!

This is at Oxford Circus in London, and I just thought these Chinese lanterns made of lights looked really cool.

Stoke Poges

Me and Betsy

Windsor

The trees that line the long walk, which is just to the left.

Runnymede

Abbie, Kaleb, Hailey

On Wednesday we had a little outing to Runnymede, Windsor and Stoke Poges. It was a lovely little day, starting in Runnymede, where we just walked through a meadow and part of the woods to see a couple monuments and such. It was nice to be outside and walking around, even though it was muddy and cold, and some weren't dressed too well for that. Windsor is and awesome castle, and the long walk, a long, tree-lined walkway, was beautiful. We drew a little and walked through the castle and looked at all the cool armor and weapons and such. Stoke Poges has a little church and cemetery, famous because of a poem, and fun because we had another poet, David Anthony, who showed us around. It was really pretty. To sum up the day, I saw so many beautiful things, especially some of the things outside. It was a great day because we were outside most of the time and it was pretty relaxed.

Valentine's Day!

My St. Valentine's Day earns a post. This is why: Antonio Banderas. On Vday morning we had drawing class, so we headed off to the V&A Museum. We drew for a couple of hours and then Abbie and I were slowly looking at some things on our way to meet Sabercat. Abbie walks up to me and says, "Those two people behind me are famous. Is that Antonio Banderas?" I turned around and there he was, with Melanie Griffith. They were in the same section as us, looking at some art. Not only that, but they made their way over and the four of us were looking at the same sculpture at the same time. It was very exciting. We scampered off to tell our professor, Joe, and he sent us off with his two younger kids, who we used to get autographs...haha. So anyways, little Hannah and I went up and asked for an autograph and he signed my sketchbook, pictured above. It was pretty exciting, especially because no one else in the museum really noticed. And this is what makes a great Valentine's day.

Woman in Black

Alyssa, Kaitlyn, Me, Hailey, Abbie, Erin

Oxford

This is inside part of Merton College campus, part of Oxford.

Oh man, it's kind of been awhile since I've posted, and I didn't really do a good job talking about Paris, but I wanted to talk about some of the highlights of the last week or so.

Last Wednesday we had a group excursion to Oxford, which was amazing. Oxford is so pretty! There are all these lovely little shops, I went into Blackwell's art and poster shop and wanted to buy all the prints and postcards they had. The Ashmolean museum is small, but has several great exhibits. There was one of a bunch of Chinese prints that were truly beautiful. There were old violins and harpsichords, which were really cool, because they're some pieces of art I haven't seen much of in the museums I've been to. Hailey and I accidently went into Merton College in Oxford and walked around an area we weren't really supposed to be in, but it was worth it. The campuses are just so beautiful, and hard to describe with words.

On Thursday night some of us girls went to a play called Woman in Black. We went last week because it's about to end and a few others went and loved it. It's a really different type of play--supposed to be scary. And it was. I definitely screamed quite a bit, along with others in the theatre. I was just glad that Abbie and Hailey were willing to hold hands. Haha.

Friday started out with really nice weather, and it continued all weekend. It was sunny and not too cold, so I spent all of Friday and Saturday outside, playing football (soccer) with others, reading in the park, running and strolling around outside and in the parks.

Sunday was a nice end to the weekend because we got to church in an hour, which is king of amazing. It's the first time the line that is our only direct route was open on the way to church, so we were early and had a nice sacrament meeting and such. I really like my sunbeams, they're so fun. We went outside for part of our lesson, which was about the creations Heavenly Father made for us because He loves us.

To end my post, today Rocky and I went with Chris--the 14 year old son of Professor Hoffman--to volunteer at an after-school homework program. He is helping as his Eagle project, so a lot of us signed up to help on different days. It was fun and felt good to be involved in part of the community while I'm here.

first glimpse of heidi in paris

Well I'm back in London as of late Friday night. Paris was so much fun and I have a lot to write about it, but it'll will take a few days to get it all on here. I ate so many crepes with nutella and I had some really good paninis. I spent a lot of time in museums and drew a lot for my art class. My sketchbook is a really nice memento because I drew something at almost every site we went to. We took an evening boat ride on the Seine the first night and it was so cold! It was cold the whole week and rainy part of the time, but it was so much fun and I learned a lot. I am really glad I was able to go and it was a great experience. I will be adding more over the next couple days!

The Importance of Being Earnest

Hailey and I at the Importance of Being Earnest on Wednesday night.

Islamic Awareness

This is just a picture from an Islamic Awareness demonstration we saw part of. A lot of the street was closed off and there were quite a few demonstrators.

off to paris!

On Thursday I went to the British Library like I had planned, and I’m so glad I did. I spent the whole time I was there in the Treasures Collection, which is a collection of many of the more famous and history-rich artifacts of the library. It was so amazing and I was glad I brought my journal to write some things down. I saw the Magna Carta, collections of hand-drawn maps from centuries ago, old sacred texts from different religions and original manuscripts and journals and sheets of music from Leonardo da Vinci and other famous scientists, Beethoven, Mozart and the Beatles, just to name a few. It was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve seen and really meant a lot—it really hit me that I was looking at things that were so influential, and not just reading about them or something. That night some of the other girls and I went out and just walked around and got some ice cream. We went to Trafalgar Square, which was so pretty at night.

On Friday morning a bunch of us went to the park to play ultimate Frisbee—I am as bad at Frisbee as I expected, haha. After showering, I went to the V&A (Victoria and Albert) museum by myself to do a little drawing for my class and that’s about it. That night most of us just stayed in and did reading and studying for our classes and played scrabble. We were pretty worn out by the end of this week.

On Saturday Hailey and I headed off to Borough Market where we got some delicious cheese and bread and fruit for our lunch Saturday and Sunday. Borough Market is huge and there were so many good samples. It is so exciting to taste the amazing olive oil and cheese and candies and everything. After we came home and ate, Hailey, Erin, Kaleb, Abbie and I went to the park to just kick the ball around and play and hang out. It was nice to be outside. A little later a bunch of us went to Camden Town for cheap dinner again, and I had Thai this time for 1 ½ pounds. It was good, and we had a nice time.

This morning was kind of an adventure, and not really a good one. We weren’t able to go to our ward. We got to the tube station and realized there wasn’t any way to get to our ward for under 50 pounds or 2 hours. Since there really aren’t very many ways to get to our ward it’s hard if they close a line we need because we don’t have a lot of alternatives. We really didn’t want to miss the sacrament again, so we went to church with some others. It was nice, but I did miss my little sunbeams. After church I went to Green Park to finish my reading for religion class and walked through St. James Park and the street that leads to Buckingham Palace—which they close to traffic on Sunday.

Well, we’re just getting ready to leave for Paris in the morning and I’ll be gone through Friday. I’m really excited, I think it’ll be a fun trip and we only have our art class while we’re there! So I will update this after I get home!

having a lovely time

This has been a good week so far. Monday started with my Shakespeare class in the morning, which was really good. I love listening to Professor Talbot talk. Sometimes we’ll be in the library or living room and he’ll just come in and start talking, telling us about things like his favorite pieces of information about Westminster Abbey or his dilemma about a class. Whatever he’s talking about, though, it’s a story. Everything is just one big fascinating story that connects back to other things. He’s a great teacher.

On Tuesday I was finally off of kitchen duty so I was able to go running after I ate breakfast and I did some laundry and reading before my sociology class. Since we are talking about crime, deviance and corrections, it’s pretty interesting. It was kind of funny; we were talking about the British police system and Kaleb raised his hand and informed us that there were four bobbies questioning a couple young men outside the window. We watched the officers pat down the guys and talk to them and let one go, then the other. It was cool to watch.

On Wednesday a big group of us went to the park to play soccer, or rather, football. It was really fun, especially when we lost a couple people and the field was a little less crowded. It was really muddy so everyone ended up covered in it, and since we were all wearing tennis shoes, we were sliding all over the place. It was a lot of fun to do something together where we could all be rambunctious and loud. Wednesday continued nicely as Abbie, Hailey, Kaleb and I went to Natural History Museum to do some drawing. We spent a while drawing, then enjoyed some of the exhibits before dinner. After dinner the whole group saw the comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" together. It was funny and we had a good time.

Today we went to British Museum for the drawing class to work on a new technique, gesture drawing. I went to the British Museum, but I really liked it, so it was nice to go back. We actually were drawing in the same area that I specifically enjoyed last time. I’m off to the British Library since I haven’t been there yet, and I’m excited to spend some there by myself.

a learning experience

Saturday was a really fun day. In the morning a bunch of us went to Portobello Market. It’s a big outdoor market that is also a farmers’ market on Saturdays. We figured we’d hang out and look around and also get some lunch for Saturday and breakfast and lunch for Sunday. I got some great bread and cheese and grapes. But actually, one of the cheeses Hailey and I bought turned out to be really nasty, so that was a bummer. Also, it stunk up the kitchen here. Haha. But we had a really good time at the market, just seeing things and whatnot.

When we got back to London Centre we decided to work on our collages that we have been assigned for our London Walks class. It’s really cool to see all the different ways everyone is doing theirs, and I’m really excited to have it as a memento of the semester.

While we were working on our homework, Professor Ostraff (Joe) and his wife and kids invited some of us to go to Camden Town. They told us it was a really “colorful” area, and that they went a lot last time they were here for really cheap, good, ethnic food. They said they usually went when it was closing because the places lower their prices and it’s easier to haggle. We were excited since we wanted to get either Indian food or Thai that night. Joe and Melinda (his wife) and their kids, Kaleb, Ethan and Hannah went, along with some of the students: myself, Hailey, Erin (my bunkmate), Andrea, Amanda and Brian (Prof. Hoffman’s son). We had a really good time. Camden Town is so cool—there’s a really fun marketplace with tons of punky people and some interesting shops. When we ate, I was able to get chicken curry for only two pounds. It was a good-sized serving, and good tasting. We had a really good time there, and the picture I posted is from there, although it’s a picture of the river, not the crazy part of Camden Town.

Today we went to church, which was great. I love teaching the Sunbeams. They’re little hellions but they’re cool and really cute and I love teaching them. We also had our first religion class, which was good. Other than that, I’ve had a nice relaxing day, and I mostly just did some reading and stuff. If I didn’t have kitchen duty, I would have had time for a walk, but that’s okay. Tomorrow’s my last day in the kitchen so I’m excited about that.

Although I really miss home and everyone there, I’m having a really good time trying to have a good time here and learn as much as I can. Today in our meeting after the religion class Joe said, “Treat [London] as an open reference.” He told us to remember to try to grow and learn and use everything we do as a learning tool. I was thinking a lot about how everything I do here and everything I see teaches me about history, or another culture, and I’m trying to remember to treat this opportunity as a growing experience, not just a fun trip. It’s been really great, and I think that mindset makes a big difference.

School has started...

The past few days have been so busy! I guess I’ll start with Tuesday, since I haven’t written since then. On Tuesday I had my second day of classes, and I was a little worried that three hours of my sociology class would be hard, but again, it went by quite fast. I was also a little disappointed that the sociology class was the afternoon one—I like having class in the morning so I have the rest of the day to do other things. However, I was able to get some reading for class done in the morning, and in the future I can do laundry since that is my room’s day.

We were really excited because Wednesday was our first day trip. We visited Canterbury first, home of the pilgrimages that inspired Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It was really cool to see the Canterbury Cathedral—it’s huge and has so much history, and it was a really nice, clear day. Canterbury has a lot of shops and stuff, so we also just walked around for a little while, exploring. After Canterbury we headed to Rye. Really the only “sight” in Rye is a church. However, Rye is a really small town so it has lovely streets and is so fun to just walk around. It reminded me a little of Orvieto, Italy, but I think Rye is even smaller. We had a lot of fun taking some pictures and strolling the streets. Our last destination was Beachy-Head. Beachy-Head is the name of a little place that has some of the white cliffs that Dover is famous for. However, Beachy-Head has the highest ones. It was so beautiful to see the ocean and the bright green grass and although it was a little chilly, the air was nice and fresh. Even though we’ve only been in London for a week, it was really nice to get out and see some nature. By the time we were heading back to the London Centre in the bus, everyone was hungry since we had eaten lunch a while back and not a whole lot of it, either. It was really nice to take that day trip and spend time with other students on the bus, getting to know other people and hanging out with them.

Thursday was a really good day. Thursday we have art, so I had Intro to Art and Drawing in the morning. We went over to the V&A Museum and drew some of the artwork. It was really interesting. We had several rules for our drawing to help us learn to draw what we actually see and not what we think we see. My sketchbook looks kind of funny, but I’m definitely learning from it. We are required to spend six hours drawing outside of class, so that will be interesting. After the class we had lunch then set off to see if we could get Swan Lake tickets for this weekend. It is the closing weekend for the English National Ballet, so we were really hoping it’d work out. We ended up getting tickets for eight pounds for that night, since it was the day of. We had so much fun! Five of us went—four girls and the lone guy from BYU, Mike. Two other girls came hoping to get in, and they did. Swan Lake was amazing. The orchestra was beautiful and the ballet was, obviously, fantastic. I’m so glad we were able to go. Afterwards, we came home and hung out with some of the other students for a while before going to bed.

Today we went to Old Spitalfields Market, an outdoor market with tons of little stands of people selling stuff. I went with a friend, Hayley, and we had a good time. I got a really cute inexpensive dress, and I am really excited about it. I've been also trying to get some reading done today.

A kind of theme I was thinking about for this week is that it’s been really nice to get to know more people better. We’re starting to get to know each other better, and I’m getting to know people I didn’t really hang out with the first few days. It’s really nice to know people since we are living together, and I feel like it’s a good sign for the way the rest of the semester will go.

pictures

sorry, for some reason the blog site is having trouble uploading photos. i know that's the potentially interesting part so hopefully i'll get it figured out!

A case of the Mondays? not so

Today was the first day of classes. This morning was the Shakespeare class, taught by Professor Talbot. Talbot is hilarious; he has a very dry sense of humor. I thought three hours was going to be really hard to get through, but actually it was great. We had just one five-minute break, but the time went by really very quickly. I’m hoping my other classes are similar.

After my class I went to the British Museum. It was really cool; I saw a lot of Greek and Roman artifacts and some from Central America. The British Museum is huge, so I didn’t see everything although I was there for a few hours. I’m looking forward to seeing artifacts from African history, since that section was closed today. Also, there is a special exhibition right now with the terra cotta army from China. Exhibitions generally aren’t free so I decided to wait and go back with a few others.

Also I found some wellies! Some of the other girls found a store that has a bunch. It’s too bad they don’t have any plain ones, but it’ll be okay.

I had my first day on kitchen crew, so i helped get dinner ready and clean up afterwards. It's not too bad, and we all have to do our part I guess. We also had FHE. My group had it with the Ostraff family, one of the professors' families that are here--they're so much fun. The little girl, Hannah, is funny and sweet, and will always give me hug.

first sunday

Today we went to church at the Mitcham Ward in the Wandsworth Stake. Wow it was quite an adventure, and it didn’t seem like a good one for a while. First off, last night we had a terrible time trying to figure out our route. Several of the tube lines are closed on Sunday so we planned on not being able to take the route that would take us most directly to where we needed to be for church. We had to take the tube (underground), the train and a tram to get there. We planned for two hours, just in case. Well we needed that time, and more. Some of the tube lines that we supposed to be open ended up being closed and then a train broke down, and we had to sit and wait on our train, until it moved out of the way. It was a mess of going from line to line and paying over six pounds, which we didn’t really want to be doing every Sunday. So we got to church as Sacrament Meeting ended.

It was great when we arrived, though. Everyone was so excited to have us there. Megan, Hannah, Anna and I are in the ward together and immediately everyone was introducing themselves and the Young Women and Primary leaders were trying to talk the first counselor into letting them have us in their respective classes. The Mitcham ward is primary made up of people from different parts of Africa, some are the first generation to move to Britain, and others’ parents came here. Also, we were told, “they always give the worst directions to you guys. They give you the most round-about way to get here.” A couple people explained to us a more direct route, and it only took an hour to get home, and four pounds each week.

Anna and I were sent to Primary, and the other two went off to help in Young Women’s. I was so excited; I was put in with the Sunbeams. With one of the companionships of missionaries, we attempted to keep the eight four-year-olds somewhat calm. These kids are so crazy and fun—I love them already. They just have so much energy, I’m glad the missionaries will be there “to keep them calm” while I teach the next few months. I also played the keyboard for their singing time, and later the first counselor asked us to come early, and if I would play some prelude for Sacrament Meeting.

The members asked us to stay for a little linger longer type thing, kind of a going-away party for a couple that is moving. We stayed and ate some delicious food they made, sandwiches, sausages, melon and some pastry ball things that were really good. I really like our ward and I’m really excited to be in it. It’s really small, and everyone is so kind and excited that it makes it even more fun for us.

Today we also had a fireside with the presidents of the two stakes we occupy, and they mainly just gave us a little background on themselves. It was nice to hear from them. Normally we’ll have our religion class on Sundays, so that will be good.

walking. (a long post-sorry, i just cut and paste what i typed over last week)

Thursday was our first full day in London and we were pretty excited to continue our walks. Breakfast is from 7:30 to 8:30 so I was up around 8:30 eating and then took a quick shower. I left with a couple girls to begin our second walk soon after that. The second walk focused around The London Wall. We followed the route along the wall—one of the highlights was Spitalfield Market, which looks like it will be a fun outdoor market to go back to and do some shopping. Christ’s Church was very beautiful. Last, at the Guild and Ward Church of St. Botolph-without-Aldersgate had a courtyard on the side with a memorial containing plaques that tell of heroic deaths. It was really cool to read those. For example, one of them said, “Soloman Galaman, Aged 11, Died of injuries Sept 6, 1901 after saving his little brother from being run over in Commercial Street. ‘Mother, I saved him but I could not save myself.’”

We continued onto the third walk after that which focused on the city. We saw a few churches and mostly went by a few of the major buildings in the city, like The Royal Exchange. It started raining sometime during our walks, and although that made it cold, it was mainly because it was really windy. It’s hard to talk a lot about the things we’ve seen because the walks are really whirlwind tours of a lot of things that we’ll get to go back to see later. Although some of the walks are so long, they are really useful for getting oriented in the city and getting a feel for where I am and where I’ll be going over the next few months.

Walk two was really long, so we only got those two done on Thursday. We ate lunch while we were out at a deli—we get breakfast and dinner at the London Centre Monday through Friday. Saturday we get breakfast and Sunday, dinner. There are usually leftovers and toast that we can have during the day, however. After we had dinner on Thursday I went with a group of people to Harrods. Harrods is a gigantic department store. It’s funny, some of the rooms even have names and themes, e.g. The Egyptian Room. They had tons of designers and a huge area with tons of different types of chocolate. A lot of people got a chocolate—or rather, two, since that’s the minimum amount you can buy.

We got back and hung out for a little while before going to bed, realizing the long day we had ahead of us, with five more walks to finish by Saturday.

On Friday we knew it would rain all day and so opted to leave right after eating—none of the girls did their hair or anything. We also wanted to get started early so we could get three walks done.

During the fourth walk we got to see some of the Thames River, and cross a few of the bridges: the London Bridge, Millennial Bridge and the Tower Bridge. We walked by Hay’s Galeria, the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern. It’s really exciting going by these galleries and museums, knowing that soon we’ll be able to go back and actually visit them. By this time we were pretty wet and cold, but it wasn’t too bad. It was okay since I had a waterproof jacket on and layers and stuff, and we knew we had a few more to finish.

The fifth and sixth walk we pretty much powered through since by this time we figured out that we needed to quickly go through the walks, and we’d be able to go back to all the places later. However, we did get to see some cool touristy sights. The London Eye is pretty huge and I really want to ride on it to see the great view of London. Big Ben is really cool and pretty—we saw it during the day but later at night too, which was beautiful. A few others were Westminster Abbey and the London Aquarium. Although it was so cool and really helped me get oriented in London, it was a lot to do and since it was raining and such, it was really nice to be finished with our first six walks.

Friday night we were pretty worn out, and we knew we still had a couple more walks, so after dinner I played some card games with a bunch of kids. It was cool because some of the people playing weren’t people I had gotten to know well yet. Dinner was really good last night, the best so far. We had soft tacos, which we made into taco salad for lunch Saturday. Oh and we had a meeting sometime after dinner where we got ward assignments and went over some other logistical things. The meetings was like two hours long and it got so boring that I wanted to poke my eyes out. Instead of doing that though, I played with some of the kids that were sitting near me, spinning Professor Ostraff’s daughter Hannah on a chair. We haven’t quite figured out how long it will take us to get to church, but it’s pretty far, and we have to take the tube, then a tram.

Saturday we took a little more time in the morning since we just had two walks to finish, and didn’t have to be back for group dinner—we’re on our own for Saturday lunch and dinner. Today was also a really nice day, kind of cold, but it wasn’t raining during the day so we were a lot less inclined to rush. The seventh walk was a tour of Theatreland. It was really exciting! We saw so many signs and posters for so many plays that I’m really excited to see while I’m here. I can’t wait! There isn’t anything particularly notable besides that, except we also saw the London Chinatown.

Our last walk was pretty short and we went after coming back to the London Centre for lunch so it was getting dark. The city is really pretty at night, especially some of the administrative and royal buildings, which is what most of our walk consisted of. We saw Buckingham Palace—I can’t wait to go back to see the changing of the guards.

It was really nice to be finished with our first eight walks since we had to cram them in the first week. It was a lot to do, and sometimes I wanted to slow down and stuff, but it was designed to get us oriented, which it did. I feel much more confident in the city and I already feel okay navigating on the tube.

First day in London!

When we arrived in London on Wednesday (January 9, 2008) morning, we took the train, then the tube, then a short walk, to the BYU London Centre. It wasn’t too bad, although we had our luggage. There were some stairs, but they seemed paltry compared the ones Mom and I conquered in Italy. I guess it was good conditioning. Also, I was kind of surprised that most everyone had more stuff than me. I brought my rolling suitcase and the matching carry-on size one. I wanted to be able to have space and stuff to bring things back.

After we got to the London Centre, most of us just got our room assignments and did some unpacking and showering and things like that. It was nice to finally arrive—this was in the early afternoon on Wednesday.

One of our classes is London Walks, and we have eight walks to complete by this Saturday. They are to help us get oriented in London. There are tons of sights and things we see, but we don’t take much time since we have a lot to get done and are going to back to see all we want over the next few months. Anyways, we did our first walk on Wednesday before dinner. The walk was nice, it was short—about an hour—and just right around the blocks surrounding the London Centre. It was nice to get fresh air, as I was a little nauseated from traveling and stuff. Also, it was nice to not be carrying bags while walking around. It was cool to get out right away and see the area we’ll be living in over the next few months.

After dinner we were lucky to go so Les Miserables at The Queen’s Theatre. A few people were disappointed since we had been awake for 30 hours and they felt like they’d fall asleep—and some did. Les Mis was amazing, and really a great way to start out the trip. I was so happy to see it and I’m so excited to see more plays and such at the theatre. After we got back from the play I just crashed. I was so tired. It was Wednesday night, around midnight, and I was so tired, having been up for about 34 hours or so. I was also really proud of myself for not falling asleep earlier. I’ve been told so many times that if I make it through the day and stuff and start out on the right schedule, jet lag won’t be a problem. And while I’ve been tired from going and going since I’ve been here, it hasn’t been ridiculous or overwhelming. Just a little bit more tired than a normal busy week, but nothing unmanageable.