harley

class. homework. then fun.

tonight i went to a steve harley and the cockney rebel concert with the loyds. it was so much fun, as always.

david is an absolute music expert and was a little disappointed but i went into it with no expectations and had a great time! i think me, rupert and emma were younger than everyone there by about 30 years, but that made it all the better. we had listened to his music on the trip to marlborough and i really liked it, so it was really fun to see him live and sing along. i also got to meet david's goddaughter katie and her husband tom who are expecting a baby, and they were so cute it was a blast. it reminded me of the creedence clearwater revival concert my family went to years ago. gotta love the classics.

amaze.

we spent the morning in hampton court. its a massive palace on the thames, and my favorite part was the gardens. it was such a huge area with fountains, and roses, and tons of trees. we had a blast looking around and enjoying the great view! they had a great exhibit of Henry VIII. they also gave us cloaks to wear along with our headphone tour and we had way too much fun being wizards.

after hampton court we all decided to head to harrods... and it was SO much fun!! we spent at least two hours there, eating cupcakes, playing in the toy section, and daydreaming of 3000 pound watches. it was like a fairytale! i didn't want to leave, but we headed over to Selfridges for makeovers and salads. ideal? yes.

then we went to the play oliver. SUCH FUN! i loved it. i had no idea i knew just about every song from that play! apparently i'm quite cultured...

all in all today was a perfect day.

wild horses

this morning we had class again, and afterwards went to the Banqueting House on Whitehall. the banqueting house was so incredibly beautiful, with an entire ceiling covered with paintings.

we spent the night at the play Warhorse. it was all about a boy and his horse during WWI. they had amazing puppets for all the animals and their body behavior was so spot on by the end you completely forgot they weren't real!

white cliffs

we woke up this morning and boarded the coach (my favorite thing ever) to head to Dover. but to be honest, this ended up being my favorite thing ever. Dover was absolutely beautiful. we visited the lighthouse, castle, and church right there on the cliffs. the view was gorgeous and it was a sunny morning, so that made it all the better!



our next stop was st. augustine abbey. look at these amazing ruins.



lastly we went to canterbury. we read canterbury tales earlier in the term, so it was fun to see what it was written about. this is the martyrdom of thomas a becket that people would pilgrimage to.



we got back pretty late, but i was so happy i was able to meet up with emma, rupert, and his parents for dinner at hache! it was so so so much fun to be able to see them all again. it felt like a family dinner- something i've missed the last 6 weeks! they have been way too good to me here in london, and i'm going to miss them all so much when i go back home!!

3 trains.

church can probably be summed up like this... 2 closed tube stations...3 buses... 3 trains... and 3 hours later we arrived just in time for sunday school.

after church we had lunch at a newly married couple from scotland's home. it was so much fun because the husband, leigh actually did his undergraduate at byu and is now finishing up his last year in dental school, so we had a lot to talk about!

this evening we were lucky enough to have a local stake president who lived in England during WWII come and talk to us. it was absolutely fascinating. i learned so much about the war, and it was amazing to hear it all from the perspective of somebody who experienced it first-hand. i cannot fathom living during that time of so much fear. he remembered, and showed us pictures of everyone carrying gas masks everywhere. he showed us a picture of the church down the road from where he grew up that was bombed and literally destroyed. he said that the memories of spending all night in an anderson shelter, listening to bombs go off all night will always be a part of him. i was honestly on the edge of my seat the entire time. i'm so so happy our professors arranged for him to come talk to us!

[you may think we are doing a peace sign in this picture.. and although we are gangster, we are actually holding up 2 fingers to document the two trains we had been on at that point.]

im a dreamer

i've spent the last three days on a trip. a trip up north.
first we stopped in Haworth at the Bronte Parsonage. it was my favorite cottage visit we've made so far this trip! i learned so much about both emily and charlotte bronte, and it was really fun because we just finished reading wuthering heights in literature! although the novel makes you imagine dark, foggy hills, we were there on the warmest day ever! SO HOT.


then we arrived at the lake district- where we spent the night. it was absolutely gorgeous! our hostel was literally right on the water, with gigantic windows overlooking the lake. it was such a fun way to spend the night! we went for walks, sat on the dock, tried to skip rocks, and had a great time.



in the morning we visited Beatrix Potter's cottage. (she wrote the peter rabbit stories) what was really neat was that you could see some of the books illustrations were replicas of her own furniture, etc.

MY FAVORITE PART OF THE DAY was when we stopped at the Preston, England temple on our way to Liverpool. you could just feel the spirit the moment you saw Angel Moroni from the highway. i am so so so glad we were able to make this stop and see this beautiful temple!

we arrived in liverpool, and the big news was that we were staying in a hotel!! yep. two people per room and no communal showers.. i felt somewhat out of place, but more so i was just ecstatic.

we went to the Beatles Story museum. it was such a fun museum!! i'm kind of a poser when it comes to the beatles, but i really do love some of their songs, and now i've actually visited where they're from! so that makes me more legit, right?


the next morning we visited two castles in Wales!

the first was beaumaris. it was a castle the english used to threaten the welsh people. it had two different walls lining the castle for defense and was never successfully conquered. i looked at it and thought... i could probably jump that and only sprain my ankle.. maybe.




the second castle was caernarfon. this was a more extravagant castle than beaumaris, and kind of more what you would picture when you think of a castle from that time period.

our last stop on the way back to london was the coventry cathedrals. this was the most amazing thing. during the blitz, the english knew if the germans continued to attack their airforce they would be defeated, so they tried to bait the germans into attacking their cities instead. they sacrificed their people so the military could stay strong and defend the country. during the blitz this cathedral was bombed and destroyed. but instead of tearing the remnants down, the country decided to leave it's remains and build a modern cathedral next to it. it now stands as a symbol of the necessity for good relations between the two countries.


all in all the past three days have been crazy busy, and crazy amazing.

ben.

this boy BEN does not exist.

even though he lives in washington, is half black, goes to byu, likes to talk in british accents, and was recently dating my best friend LO.

best prank ever? yes.

made me cry? yes.

*this is not a real photo of this pretend person.. i'm just assuming this is what he looked like, modeling for abercrombie in his spare time.