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!