Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Somehow I managed to reset my clock time, instead of set my alarm, so I did not wake up on time for church. Oops! I debated not going, but I did the right thing and went. I know, I know… I’m so good ;). Besides, I had to teach. I made it to church right as primary was starting. The kids were very rambunctious today. My class was a mix of a nightmare and a comedy. The kids are so random and distracted, yet they can also be little monsters. I swear this one boy just loves to hit, kick, pinch, etc all of the other little children. He even picks on his older brother, who cries whenever he does. It’s sad, because I am always relieved when church is over. Church is exhausting. Came home from church and began studying for my Religion test right away. I’m proud of how studious I was. I sat in the library and started reading the material I had neglected to read earlier. Unfortunately, the reading took forever, so I didn’t finish it, because I felt that other notes were more important. Sarah Shepard and I worked on completing the study guide together. I really think that studying with other people is a big help. Studied up until dinner, studied after dinner, then we had a fireside by Sister Howe’s husband who is visiting, then studied after that for a couple more hours. Started the test around 11pm, and finished around midnight. Everyone was complaining about how hard and ridiculous the test was, but I felt that it was better than the first one, and not that hard. There were definitely some questions that I had never ever even heard of. Those were ridiculous, because our professor never even teaches half of what is covered on the test. Started packing for Paris afterwards. Definitely am not going to get enough sleep tonight. Packed and read my Lonely Planet book on Paris, then finally went to bed around 3:30am. Too late, I know! But I’m going to Paris!!! :)

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Allyson’s half-sister, Melinda, and her family came to London for the weekend. They live in Harrogate, four hours north of London by train. We met her at the Science Museum, but it took us forever to get there because all of the lines we needed to take to get there were down. I hate all this underground construction, it is such an inconvenience. Melinda and her husband, Devon, are very nice, and their two children, Clara and Jonas, are adorable. We had some fun wandering around the science museum, then we headed to Big Ben. It was a challenge to get there, because all the lines are down, but I left them and headed back to the Centre early. I should have studied while I was at the Centre without Allyson, because I had two huge tests – English and Religion. Instead of studying, I went to Subway for lunch (tried to get someone to go with me, but everyone had already eaten). As I was heading back to the Centre, I ran into Laura, CJ, and Rachel, who invited me to come to H&M with them. All of the jackets and blazers were on sale, but I resisted, even though I really wanted one. Came back to the Centre and pretended to study, but really just looked for any excuse to distract me. I did get some studying in. Allyson still wasn’t back by dinner, so I went to Tuk Tuk Thai Noodle with Laura and Jenny. I love that place! It is cheap and good! They liked it too, which is good, because now I have someone to go there with! After dinner, I studied my butt off. Took the test around 10:45pm. It was pretty freaking hard. There was just so much information to remember. At least it is over. Now I still have to study for Religion, but one test is all I can handle in a day, so calling it a night.

Friday, March 12th, 2010

DAY AFTER THE DAY FROM HELL

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

DAY FROM HELL!




**** but we did get to see Hairspray...
We went with Margaret, Sarah Sheperd, and Reesa to see Hairspray. We went to the box office and bought student standby tickets in the stalls. They were great seats. I liked the performance, but I didn’t love it like most of the other girls at the Centre. It was fun, but not my preference of musical. The actors were really good, and the dancing was a lot of fun. They all pulled off the American accent flawlessly, except for Link who lost it every now and then. My fav parts were when Edna (played by a man of course) had a number with her husband, and they started laughing and improving a little. It was really funny, but I’m pretty sure they do that every performance, so it kinda was a disappointment. The show was very dirty and provocative, even perverted. It was still funny, but even I was taken aback by some of the dirty humor. Some of it was just plain gross.

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Day Trip #7…

Went to Stourhead Gardens today. They are absolutely gorgeous. They had major significance for me, haha. Pride and Prejudice (with Keira Knightley) was filmed there. The scenes that were filmed there are my favorite in the entire film, and I have studied them for classes in high school and Freshman year at BYU. They are the scenes when Elizabeth Bennet is sitting in a church meeting learning that Mr. Darcy has ruined her sister’s relationship with Mr. Bingley. There is an awesome focus pull from Darcy to Elizabeth as he looks up at her. Then the scene changes to her running across a bridge through the pouring rain. She gets out of the rain by taking shelter at the Temple of Apollo. At the Temple of Apollo is where Darcy surprises her by following her and then confessing his love for her, after first insulting her and her family. Love, love, love those scenes, and love Mr. Darcy! I’m sad I didn’t find him while visiting the gardens!  (P.S. We love scaffolding!)

After Stourhead Gardens, we went to Jane Austen’s house. Not very thrilling. We wandered around there for a bit, but nothing particularly notable sticks out in my mind.

We went to Winchester Cathedral next. They gave us way too much time to spend there, so we spent a lot of that time just wandering aimlessly through the city until the coach came. The Cathedral was very beautiful though. It is where Jane Austen is buried, and there is a nice memorial there for her. I think the cathedrals we have seen are all very beautiful, but they are starting to blur together a bit.

So we got £5 for dinner, so Allyson and I went to Marks and Spencer’s for dinner to get there really good soup. Unfortunately they were completely sold out! Instead I found this awesome Mediterranean dinner mix. For £3 I got stuffed grape leaves, hummus, tzatziki, mixed olives, falafel, and some other potato/cheese fried ball thing. It was very good! Haha I love when I “make” money, and have leftovers for another meal. Good times.

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Allyson and I got to sleep in today – sort of. Our entire dorm woke up around 8am and was ridiculously loud, turning on lights, yelling, and screaming. It was very rude, because both Ally and I were trying to sleep. Everyone else was going on the country walk. We didn’t care to, because there are so many things in London that we still want to see and do. Haha well first thing in the morning we did – laundry. Fun, I know! We got ready and then went to a pub for lunch. I got fish and chips, and Ally got a chicken and leek pie. She is convinced she must try British food, although whenever she does, she doesn’t like it at all. It is pretty funny. After lunch, we went to the National Portrait Gallery. It houses portraits of historically important and famous British people. The upper floors were filled with paintings of historic figures and royalty. The bottom floor was my favorite, and had paintings as well as photos of more modern figures and famous people. There was an awesome exhibit on Twiggy.

After the museum, we walked to Leicester Square and looked for the Shaftsbury Theatre, where Hairspray is playing. We were going to see it tonight, but the girls we were going to see it with decided to go on Thursday instead. Oh well. I am still looking forward to it.

Allyson and I went and saw Alice in Wonderland tonight! I love Johnny Depp! I really liked the movie. Although, it was much less mad and much more sad than I was expecting. I really felt sad for the Mad Hatter when Alice left him. I wanted to give him a hug… but that may have been also because he was Johnny Depp. ;) But I did feel sad for him. I really liked Helena Bonham Carter’s performance as the Red Queen. She was awesome! So funny! And I thought that Mia Wasikowska did a wonderful job as Alice. I thought she was very pretty. I wasn’t a big fan of Anne Hathaway’s performance though. I felt she was too airy and aloof. Overall, I really did enjoy the film. Yay Johnny Depp!

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Classes in the morning. This evening we went as a program to see War Horse. I was not excited to go. It got great reviews, but I don’t really care about stories about horses and war. The production was put together nicely, but the acting was not very impressive (it annoyed my a bit), and the plot was lame. The only cool part was the horses, basically metal and leather shells of horses supported by three actors. They made the actions and sounds of the horses very lifelike. It was cool in the beginning, then it wears off and you realize that it is just three grown men making animal noises. That’s when you start laughing (at the wrong parts), but it is pretty ridiculous. I suppose I am being pretty cynical, it was a good production, I just couldn’t relate or really enjoy it. I am not the only one to feel this way; many of the other students share my sentiments. Calvin absolutely detested the play. When we got back to the Centre, I looked up War Horse and found out that Steven Spielberg is actually making a movie about it in 2012. Haha very funny!

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

I was exhausted this morning. Went to church. Primary exhausted me further. I had seven kids in my primary class and they were crazy. If I even blinked they would all get up and run out the door. Insanity. After church I met Allyson back at the Centre to go to her friend, Sister Ashton’s, house for dinner. We got there a little after 3pm. She lives really close to Abbey Road, so after chatting for a little bit we walked over there and took some photos. She also took us to a French patisserie. We ordered hot chocolate and desserts. We all got Concertos, which are chocolate mousse desserts with biscuit crust and pieces of crunchy hazelnut crème cookies. So good! It was amazing! Chocolate overload! Nothing better than having dessert before dinner! We walked back to her house. She has three children who are absolutely adorable. They built a fort in their bedroom. It was pretty cool. They were very excited to show us. The youngest boy is such a happy child, so cute! I loved all three of them! Shannon was really helpful. She has a lot of experience traveling through Europe and has promised to help us plan for our backpacking adventure. She has seriously been all over. She has so many amazing photos from everywhere she goes. It was fun to have a “home cooked” meal (not that the Centre isn’t home cooked… it’s just not eaten in a home). Dinner was really good. After, we talked more about Europe and looked through her photo albums. It was a very fun Sunday evening!

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Amnesia

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Today we went on a field trip in London. We went to Hampstead. First place we went to was Keats’ House. John Keats was a Romantic poet, known for his sensual imagery. He wrote such works as “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, and “Bright Star”.

After Keats’ house, we went walking through Hampstead Heath to get to Kenwood House. Hampstead Heath is a very beautiful park, with pretty greenery and gardens. It was also, sadly, very muddy. Allyson was taking a photo and walking slowly, when she slipped and fell in the mud. Her boot, pants, and purse got really muddy. It was so sad! Tried to scrap it off with a stick, but there wasn’t much we could do in the middle of nowhere. We got separated from the group too, so we had a hard time finding Kenwood House. I swear Allyson and I are cursed. I fell in the mud at Dover! We have really bad luck.

We finally made it to Kenwood House. I don’t remember the historical significance, but it is the scene in Notting Hill, when Julia Roberts’ character is filming a movie and Hugh Grant’s character comes to visit. It was a very nice manor, and the land it was on was very beautiful.

Allyson and I were planning on going straight back to the Centre afterwards, to get some “work” done, but we decided last second to get off the tube and Camden to go to Camden Market. We hadn’t been there on a Friday yet. It was a lot better than going during the week. More stalls were open, and we found a huge section that we either missed last time we went, or it wasn’t open. We went into this crazy store that is completely decked out it techno/rave themes, complete with neon lighting and dancing girls high above the shoppers. I can’t imagine who would buy the clothes there, because they were all weird clothes. Like space themed or something. Dresses for women were neon colors with weird holes, or hoops around the waist and hips. Weird stuff. It was also really expensive. I didn’t get it, but it was still a cool store. Camden Market is a lot of fun, but I like Portobello Road more.

Got back to the Centre a lot later than I was planning. We “worked” and planned, and sorta went to bed early… does 11pm count?

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Day Trip #6…

In the morning we went to Warwick Castle, a medieval castle in Warwickshire. It’s been turned into a major tourist attraction/amusement park. I didn’t really like how touristy it was. They had scheduled shows, people in costumes, and lots of little kids running around. I think it could have been fun if we went during the summer, because then they have jousting tournaments, but otherwise I wasn’t impressed. They did have lovely gardens, but again they would have been prettier in the spring/summer. There was a garden though that had a dozen peacocks roaming around in it. It was cool, because they were right next to you… no cages or anything.

We walked into this big field where this guy was flying birds. He was the resident falconer. He let us put on a leather glove and have a giant owl swoop down and eat a baby chicken out of our hand. As a vegetarian, I probably should have been against holding a dead chick in my hand (which was really gross), but it was really cool to have this huge predator bird swoop down at you. Really cool! Definitely the best part of the castle.

After Warwick we drove to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We went to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shakespeare’s wife’s childhood home. Then we went to Shakespeare’s Birthplace and childhood home. I was impressed with how they made up this particular tourist attraction. It was similar to the bread tour at Disneyland, where you watch a video, then move onto another room to continue the movie. It was nicely done. We then went to Nash’s House, the house where Shakespeare retired and lived the rest of his life. After Nash’s House, we were free to roam the city on our own for a couple of hours until we had to meet back up at the RSC Courtyard Theatre to see King Lear. Allyson and I walked all over the city – multiple times in fact because we got kinda lost.

We were headed in the general direction of the theatre when we found some of our classmates confused as to where to go, so we joined together and made our way to the RSC Theatre. I was very skeptical about this performance. I was not looking forward to it. The theatre was very interesting. I felt like it was an Ikea theatre, because the seats and setup were very modern looking. The seats rose up very high, but were not very deep, so everyone in the theatre had a clear view of the actors/stage down below. The stage was small with two pathways cutting through the audience. The performance was very long, and before it started I was afraid I would fall asleep.

Well, King Lear was fantastic. I loved it! I never really thought I would love a Shakespeare play, but this performance was fantastic. The actors were very good, and their use of stage, props, and overall acting was great. They had very little to work with on the stage, but the way the lighting was done allowed multiple scenes to flow flawlessly, cutting back and forth between different characters.

We were all fairly nervous during the show, because Sister Howe had told us that at one point during the play King Lear would run out on the stage naked. No one wanted to see an old man naked. Fortunately (or unfortunately) she was mistaken, and the scene did not occur. To tell you the truth, it was kind of a let down, because all of the nervous apprehension was all for nothing. Haha. I still loved the performance. It was done very well. I suppose it is hard to explain why; it was just so good! King Lear has become one of my favorite plays here. Never thought I’d see the day when Shakespeare would make my Top 5 list.

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

After classes today, Allyson and I went to a matinee showing of “39 Steps”. The play has only four actors, but together they play 139 different characters. It is absolutely hilarious. The only character who remains constant throughout the play is Richard Hannay. The play starts with Hannay introducing his story. Hannay goes to a London theatre and watches a demonstration of the remarkable powers of “Mr. Memory”, a man with a photographic memory. Shots are fired, and the woman who fired the shots, Annabella Schmidt, convinces Hannay to take her back to his flat with him. At his flat, she tells him that she is a spy, and is being chased by assassins. She claims she has uncovered a plot to steal vital British military secrets. Hannay becomes involved in this sordid affair, when he wakes up the next day to find Miss Schmidt dead, stabbed with his own bread knife. He escapes and goes on the run, as the entire country searches for him. Plot thickens, stories intertwine, and suspense builds in this hilarious comedy. I loved every moment. It has become my second favorite show here in London (after Les Miserables). You must see it if you have the opportunity! (You especially must see it if you are familiar with Alfred Hitchcock films, because there are many puns and allusions to his films.)

Monday, March 1st, 2010

After classes today, Allyson and I were productive! I know! I’m proud too! We went to Dr. Samuel Johnson’s house to complete an assignment for our British Literature class. Johnson was the man who wrote “The Dictionary of the English Language,” a feat that took nine years to complete, and had a huge impact on Modern English.

We came back to the Centre and got dressed for Mika! For all of you who don’t know who Mika is… shame on you! Mika is one of my favorite musicians. He is so upbeat and fun! I am so excited for his concert. It’s gunna be insane! We scarfed down our food (felt slightly sick after), then ran out the door to get to our concert! There were about ten of us going, and I was very excited. He was performing at the Hammersmith Apollo Theatre. We arrived at the theatre about 45 minutes before the doors opened, and joined the cue. We realized that the cue didn’t really mean anything, so we crowded around the doors like most of the other people. We had standing tickets in the stalls, so we were eager to get in as quickly as we could so we could find good spots to stand. As soon as we entered the doors at 7pm, Allyson took both of our coats to check, and I pushed my way forward to save us spots. I was the very first one of our group in, so I temporarily lost everyone. I snagged a space in the very front of the stage in the middle, two people back. I waved Allyson down as she entered, but we never found where our other friends were standing. We had great spots!

The opening act came on at 8pm. Eric Hassle opened. He was a character! He had bright red/orange curly hair that was combed over into an odd front ponytail creation. He was interesting. He sounded similar to Gavin Degraw in my personal opinion, but more pop-ish. He’s from Sweden. He’s Swedish. He made sure we knew he was a Swede. He had four other band members. Two of which are Swedish like he is. The other two are British. Allyson and I really liked the drummer and the bassist. I called dibs on the bassist.

Mika came on at 9pm. The theatre was so crowded; everyone went insane when the show started. It opened with a guy dressed in a school boy uniform coming on stage and sitting in a desk. He was scribbling furiously in notebook. As he was drawing, the curtain fell away to reveal a giant notebook in the background that was being sketched upon as he drew. It was really cool. Lot’s of flashing lights, mad designs, smoke/fog, and finally Mika. Mika entered the stage rising from the floor in front of the notebook. It was so cool! He opened with his song “Rain” from his new CD. Loved it! It is one of my favorite songs! He sang every one of the songs from his new CD, as well as some of his songs from his previous album. The concert was so much fun. He didn’t have any interesting wardrobe changes, but he had some great characters come on stage. Two of his numbers involved processions of Catrina skeletons and other Dia de los Muertos figures. It was very fun! One of my favorite parts was during “We Are Golden,” when confetti cannons launched golden confetti all over us. I kept finding pieces of is all over me after the concert. It was a great concert. Allyson and I had a lot of fun! I am so glad that we got to go!