REMAINING BLOG POSTS

Westminster ABBeY

            Okay yes I know I’ve overused the whole my-name-is-abby-and-everything-is-called-an-abbey in London thing but guess what I don’t care. We had our first day of class and after being in a hot classroom for four straight hours I think its safe to say I would much rather learn by going to museums and walking around the city, so we went on a walk after class! On our way to our group trip to Westminster Abbey, we stopped and grabbed a sandwich at “pret-a-manger” a little café chain that is all over the place here. In fact, they even have put one in just down the street from my flat and it took them like two weeks to finish it. I’d say they are the equivalent of McDonalds in America. Except they are wayyy healthier and fresher.

            Anyway, our activity of the day was a grand tour of Westminster Abbey. Here are some quick facts I wanted to remember:

-only one  Royal Wedding has taken place outside of Westminster Abbey since it was built, and it was the wedding of Bloody Mary.

-Shakespeare is not buried here, however there is a shrine to him, just like every other Abbey in London.

-Every Knight has their own coat of arms, even Sir Elton John. (The queen has one too, and it includes a unicorn.)

-There are hecka tributes to American soldiers in there because we basically saved them from the Nazis in World War Two. ‘Murica.

-it is enormous! Basically every king and queen of England since the Norman conquest has their own room shrine type thing so it just goes on forever!

            Westminster Abbey was seriously gorgeous. It was totally interesting too, because there are tons of modern additions, including a plaque to honor FDR and statues of “Modern Maurders” one of which was Martin Luther King Jr. once again I say, ‘Murica.

Also, we once again stopped at LaDurée. I think that’s three so far for anyone keeping score.

Two Patties at the Same Time!

            After class Thursday, we happened to see a cute little food market right outside our classroom. After side-stepping some Marxist student groups, we found the most delish pork sandwiches ever, and you can guess by the title, it did indeed have two patties on the most perfect bun in the world. We grabbed some raspberries and had the cutest little picnic in the park with the other co-eds who attend London University College.

            We next visited the British Museum, which I have been excited about since my fourth grade GATE teacher introduced me to their massive collection which is all displayed on their website (As Bumper in Pitch Perfect would say: “Nerd Alert!!”) We saw some sweet Egyptian relics, including Cleopatra, the Rosetta Stone, and amazing Greek sculpture. I think the most fastinating part about the British museum is that most of their collections they just decided to plunder off the people they conquered. Whoops.

            For dinner, we made a stop at the Harrods Food Halls. When I die, I hope heaven looks like the Harrods Food Halls. That place is perfect. I think I could live my whole life in Harrods and never leave, and still be satisfied. There is anything and everything you could ever need at that store. And besides that, every room you enter is absolutely gorgeous.

Oh Ya It’s a Day Trip 28/6

            Going into this study abroad I gave little to none thought about the concept of the “day trips.” However I am quickly learning how amazing the rest of England is! I love getting out of the city and seeing the amazing attractions and historical monuments that England has to offer. This week, our trip was out to Stonehenge. They have no idea how stonhenge happened, like whaaa? Going there I hadn’t really anticipated how cool stonehendge actually was. Somehow these ancient people historians know nothing about built these huge archways, before a time where they even had tools. It was super interesting to think about what they could have done to create this monument and why they did it. #millennialquestions

            Our next stop on the trip was Bath. I wish we could have stayed the night in Bath because it was the cutest little town. We learned about the Romans that came to Bath because they thought the mineral waters had healing properties. I hadn’t really thought about English people before 1620, because that’s where America’s history begins. I learned that Britain was first occupied by the Romans in about 100 AD, and their history is still alive in places like Bath.

Pictures on Pictures at bath

A Very Posh Day 29/6

            I promise I won’t write out a whole post about every single day, however, certain days tended to have themes, so the theme of this post is FANCY. The crew woke up early to get ready and head over to Wimbledon, in hopes of catching “the tennis” as the British say. However the “queue” (I hate that word because it could literally be in any tense and any form-verb, noun, adjective…it’s a hot mess.) was already 6 hours long we weren’t as committed as some might be to the tennis—so 6 hours of queueing was not in cards for us. However, a nice brunch was. You can see why I liked the friends I found so much, girls after my own heart! Classy brunch ended and we returned to London, and walked around Hyde Park, a very classy area of towm—however we did something very unclassy. The American inside us all really craved a diet coke and McFlurry. So we grabbed McFlurries with “crunchie” (a British candy bar that’s basically chocolate-covered honeycomb) and FELL ASLEEP in Hyde Park. It was not a shining moment for Americans. Whoops.

Church in London 30/6

            Church in London really means church just outside of London. And by just outside of London I mean an hour and a half journey from our flat. Instead of church being three hours every Sunday, with travel we were in our dresses for a total of six hours. It really made me appreciate being able to drive to the Bryan building in the ‘vine—8 minutes away from my house.

            The Catford ward is small but mighty. There are many members who have held leadership positions from the time of their conversion. The spirit is strong there and they have a love for missionary work! I was able to work in the YSA class as a teacher. The class was made up of new members, children of record, visitors, and the occasional missionaries. It was interesting to teach a class made up of so many different understandings of the gospel. The focus of the class as a whole was the first lesson in Preach my Gospel—which covers the Restoration and Apostasy. I taught many lessons about the Restoration and found that I had a firm grip on the first discussion.  I loved getting to know the people of the Catford ward.

Crown Jewels

            This week we went to the Tower of London, which has been around for over 1000 years and is still in functional use today. To keep the Olympic medals safe before they gave them out to the athletes, the British government kept them safe in the Tower of London. The tower is also home to 7 Ravens,  and it is said that they must be there or else London will fall into chaos. The Tower is composed of several buildings, including the outer walls and the central White Tower. It was initially a residence, but the royal family has outgrown it over the centuries. Now they have Buckingham Palace, Windsor Palace, Kensington Palace, and dozens of little countryside cottages.

            When I walked in the Tower of London I was looking for all the secret things that happened there—like where they beheaded Anne Bolyn, where they found the bodies of two missing princes, and all the other weird things that the British Monarchy has done in the last thousand years. Before I could really start my tour though, I snuck off with my good friend Laura to grab an ice cream. Whoops again. On the tour we learned about all the weirdie torture methods for their prisoners and who actually was locked up in the tower. Many of the prisoners had carved in the walls centuries ago, and their marks are still visible.

            My favorite part of the Tower of London was the crown jewels. SOOO GLITTERY and SPARKLY. It was a dream come true. One of the diamonds in the scepter used in coronation ceremonies is over 500 carats.  Each royal has their own crown made for them in addition to the coronation crown. It was the most sparkly room I had ever been in.

The 4^th of July in London

            I’m proud to be an American. This year was the first that I didn’t spend with my family in Lake Tahoe, so it was a little rough to try and find ways to celebrate, but we made the best of it. Obviously we went all out dressing up. Our day started out with the most American breakfast we could think of, doughnuts. The guy who sold them to us was totally rude—he was like “are you sure you want another one? I don’t think you realize how many calories are in these.” WHAT why would anyone want to discourage someone from buying their product? I do not understand the welfare state. Haha. We went to hyde park and sang God Bless the USA as loud as we could. (video)

            For dinner we hit up the grand opening of 5 guys—home sweet home.

July 15, 2013 Jean ValJean the Superhero

            After walking around five miles a day every day, I decided my feet needed a little TLC, so we walked another two miles to find this little Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall nail salon, and it felt like I was home at Nailtique. Ahhhhhh.

            Our activity today was the Museum of London; it highlights all the major events that have happened in London from Roman times all the way through the 2012 olympics. This museum is one of my new favorites because they organization and presentation of the displays was amazing! Everything from the suffrage movement to World War Two, to the great fire through Beatlemania was so interesting to look at! They had displays of beautiful gowns from the 1920s and nurses uniforms from the Great War. It showcased the influence London has had in the world. In addition to the fabulous exhibits, the Museum of London has the BEST gift shop I have ever been in. They had the cutest pillow cases, cards, amazing books, food and everything in between; I could probably get every London souvenir I could ever want at this gift shop.

            After the museum Zoë and I had some time to kill, so we ate the best Pizza ever at Pizza Express, and then grabbed a Diet Coke at McDonalds (natch). While we were grabbing some DC, we noticed a crown forming around the theatre we were facing in Leischester Square. We realized that the UK Wolverine Premiere was going down, and Hugh Jackman was coming to the red carpet! We joined the crowd and literally stood 15 feet away from him. This is why I love London, there is always some ground-breaking, fantastic, new event going on and everyone can join in! Even just walking from site to site you are bound to see something being filmed or some sort of big event happening. So much interesting stuff to do in Londontown!

            Our group went to go see Macbeth at the Globe Theatre, and it was much better than Hamlet in Stratford. They added many new musical selections to dramatize each scene, which really added to the production. I happen to think the story of Macbeth is super interesting; especially the way Shakespeare handles Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s marriage. This production showed that they were in love, but both desperate for power, which is how I imagined it.

LONDON TOP TEN

1.     MARKETS (BOROUGH/PORTEBELLO/SUNDAY UPMARKET/SPITTALFIELDS/FARMERS MARKETS)

2.     BARCLAY BIKES

3.     YSA WARD

4.     PUBS (BANGERS AND MASH)

5.     LONDON EYE/WESTMINSTER

6.     COVENT GARDEN/WALKING HOME AT NIGHT (JAMIE OLIVER, AMORINO, LADUREE, BENS, SHAKESHACK, FREE WIFI AT APPLE STORE, PUBS)

7.     HARRY POTTER STUDIOS

8.     LIBERTY OF LONDON (CAFÉ/PRINT SHOP ON THIRD FLOOR)

9.     DISNEYLAND PARIS

10. SHOWS (ONCE, WICKED, SOUND OF MUSIC, MATILDA, BILLY ELLIOT)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

            MUSEUM OF LONDON

            TENNYSON DOWN

ST PAULS (I think I would have appreciated it more if I hadn’t seen St. Peter’s already)

ST MICHAELS MOUNT

CHURCHILL WAR ROOMS

WAGAMAMAS/NANDOS

LYME REGIS/THE COBB/ISLE OF WIGHT

MARRIOT REGENTS PARK

LDS PAGENT/PRESTON TEMPLE

STALKING FAMOUS PEOPLE

HARRODS

BRITISH LIBRARY