Last nights candlelight concert at St. Martin's-in-the-Field was definitely not what I expected. At all. Let me first explain to you what I had imagined it would be like. First it's a concert right? So I'm thinking it'll be a little local band playing some catchy music and we can all socialize and have a little party. Kind of like a concert in the park type of thing. Then I'm thinking well the location is St. Martin's-in-the-Field. A field people. Once again, concert in the park type thing going on. Then the candlelight part comes in. So I'm assuming that we'd all be given a little candle and it would be super awesome looking and basically it was just all fabulous in my imagination.
Too bad my imagination is a lot cooler than reality sometimes. Here's what actually happened. We get there and it's one of London's many church's. It is not however, a field. Nor is there even any fields around because it 's in the middle of the city. But that's ok. I can live with it being in a church. Their always pretty cool looking on the inside so whatever. Then we take our seats and they are probably the most uncomfortable seats in the whole world. The backs are stick straight (this is a real analogy right? cuz if you think about it, most sticks aren't really straight at all....but anyways, they were extremely straight backed chairs) and the seat part is barely big enough for your butt. But once again, I'm like it's cool. I can live through an hour concert on a crappy chair. No biggy. Well then I find out that the candlelight part is basically a lie. There are like maybe 20 tea light candles around the church. Not enough to make a significant difference in the lighting. And then they don't even turn the lights off, they just slightly dim them. That was definitely a disappointment. But here's the icing on the cake. The whole concert was freaking classical music. Yep, that's right ladies and gentleman. Not what I was expecting at all. Ok, so it's not like I absolutely hate classical music or anything, but the only time I listen to it is when I'm doing homework and I need some non-distracting background noise. Classical music is not my idea of a concert. And here's what happened while said concert was going on. I fell asleep. Sorry music players, but I was really tired and I didn't care so much about your music. Then, just when I think it may be over, they have a 20 minute intermission, followed by another 90 minutes of music. So long.
Alright, alright so it really wasn't the most horrible thing of my life. It just failed to meet my expectations. And according to some person in my study abroad group, going to a concert at St. Martin's is one of the cool things to do when your in London, so at least now I can say I've done it.
Today, Tara, Kaylee and I went to Primark, which is this su[er cheap department store. It was great. Except it was also a freaking madhouse. I ended up buying a bunch of stuff that I will be returning because I was too frustrated to try them on. The line to even get a dressing room was literally 15 minutes long. But it was another good London experience and really, you can't beat their prices. Because it was such a madhouse, we all ended up getting split up and could never find each other, so we all went home on our own. After eating leftovers for lunch, Tara and I headed to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which I have decided is my favorite Museum of any I have ever been too. It was way way cool. Then we headed back home for dinner and I have since spent my night doing homework. I know, it's lame, but I have to get it done sometime.
I decided that I also need to go on a little rant about food. I love it. First of all, my family should be especially proud to know that I have eaten everything that has been put before me. I haven't been picky at all and have just been trying everything. Even for lunch when we go grab something to eat, I just order whatever because I have no idea what it is or what's in it and I just hope that it doesn't make me want to throw up. This has worked out surprisingly well for me. I can honestly say that the only food I wanted to throw up was the split pea soup. Because let's just face the facts, no one wants to eat split pea soup. It's disgusting and there's no way around that. Even the hot dogs we had weren't absolutely horrible, though that's probably because the buns were fabulous. Bread here is seriously amazing. I mean the hamburger and hot dog buns are like rolls. All of the bread is just soo yummy. Last night for dinner, we had fish and chips and once again I surprised myself by not hating it. It really didn't even have a fishy taste and I wouldn't mind eating it again. But let's get down to the really good stuff. Dessert. I will probably leave London weighing an extra 100 pounds. Ok, not really, because that would be disgusting. But they just have the most amazing desserts here. My new favorite place you ask? Gino's gelato. So amazing. Tara and I already decided that it will be a frequent stop, even if we have to take the tube like 5 stops to get there. So anyways, I just had to go on a little rant about how really the food doesn't suck here like everyone says it does and also that I am really proud of myself for being less picky and eating whatever is on the table.
P.S. I'm just going to add a disclaimer that I don't reread any of these posts. I've noticed some spelling errors in some of my other posts and your just going to have to deal with them because although I'm in editing and I do love to edit, I just am not willing to spend the extra time rereading these.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
exhaustion
I'm so tired, it's beyond ridiculous.
Yesterday I'm not really sure what happened...
Just kidding. I remember now. We went to Greenwich all together. It was a cool little day tour. First we got on the tube and then on the Thames Clipper which is a little boat thingy that drives you down the Thames. It was great and we were able to get a ton of cool pictures. Once we got there we went to the National Maritime Museum, which was boring. I'm not even going to lie to you about it and make it sound really cool. I mean, it's not the worse museum I've ever been in and it was interesting to see some of the different tools that they used on ships back in the day. And there was this case of old swords which was probably what I thought was the coolest thing. I didn't even know that there were that many different kinds of swords. But basically I just had no interest in maritime stuff. Even my history professor said it was lame, so I don't feel bad. Afterward we attempted to see the Prime Meridian, which is at the National Observatory right above the museum. But they were going to make us pay 10 pounds to see a stupid line. So we vetoed that. And then found out later that there are places where it's marked around the observatory. But oh well. We just made up our own line and took a picture there. =]
After all of that stuff, we went and grabbed some lunch. We were going to attempt to walk under the Thames to the other side, because they have this cool pedestrian tunnel. But we couldn't find it. And we actually didn't look very hard because we were all pretty tired. We did come across this small market with like 10 booths. We got some good Chinese food and some amazing chocolate from this nice dude with free samples. Free samples are the way to go, for real. I never would have bought his chocolate if he hadn't given me free samples first.
Once we got home it was time to crack down on the homework. I got most of it done and probably should have stayed home to finish the rest but instead a big group of us went to The Lion King. Let me tell you, it was 50 million times better than staying home and doing homework. I absolutely loved it! The costumes were amazing and the choreography was fantastic. You need to go see it. They have shows in Vegas. So go. Now. It was also really cool to see it here in London, because at least 90%, if not more, of the cast was actually black and a lot of them were actually African and had cool African accents. For example, Simba, who was pretty hot, was made even hotter by his sweet accent. I don't even know what kind of accent it was, but definitely somewhere in Africa. So great. And funny. And just simply amazing.
Today has been super chill. I actually haven't even left our house except to grab lunch. We had classes this morning. I love love love our professors. They are such good teachers and just so awesome. Then I did my laundry. I know, super exciting. And then I started my next book for my Literature class, but fell asleep before I got very far. And now I'm here blogging. Tonight we're going to some candlelight something or other as a whole group so once I actually know what that is and how cool it is, I'll give you guys a better story on it. Although I feel kind of lame not really going out and doing anything tonight, I just needed a day to sleep. It's always go, go, go and the days are so long. There's no time to rest and then we don't really go to bed early so I've just been so tired these past few days. It'll be nice to go to bed a little earlier tonight.
Yesterday I'm not really sure what happened...
Just kidding. I remember now. We went to Greenwich all together. It was a cool little day tour. First we got on the tube and then on the Thames Clipper which is a little boat thingy that drives you down the Thames. It was great and we were able to get a ton of cool pictures. Once we got there we went to the National Maritime Museum, which was boring. I'm not even going to lie to you about it and make it sound really cool. I mean, it's not the worse museum I've ever been in and it was interesting to see some of the different tools that they used on ships back in the day. And there was this case of old swords which was probably what I thought was the coolest thing. I didn't even know that there were that many different kinds of swords. But basically I just had no interest in maritime stuff. Even my history professor said it was lame, so I don't feel bad. Afterward we attempted to see the Prime Meridian, which is at the National Observatory right above the museum. But they were going to make us pay 10 pounds to see a stupid line. So we vetoed that. And then found out later that there are places where it's marked around the observatory. But oh well. We just made up our own line and took a picture there. =]
The Tower Bridge from the back of the Clipper
After all of that stuff, we went and grabbed some lunch. We were going to attempt to walk under the Thames to the other side, because they have this cool pedestrian tunnel. But we couldn't find it. And we actually didn't look very hard because we were all pretty tired. We did come across this small market with like 10 booths. We got some good Chinese food and some amazing chocolate from this nice dude with free samples. Free samples are the way to go, for real. I never would have bought his chocolate if he hadn't given me free samples first.
Once we got home it was time to crack down on the homework. I got most of it done and probably should have stayed home to finish the rest but instead a big group of us went to The Lion King. Let me tell you, it was 50 million times better than staying home and doing homework. I absolutely loved it! The costumes were amazing and the choreography was fantastic. You need to go see it. They have shows in Vegas. So go. Now. It was also really cool to see it here in London, because at least 90%, if not more, of the cast was actually black and a lot of them were actually African and had cool African accents. For example, Simba, who was pretty hot, was made even hotter by his sweet accent. I don't even know what kind of accent it was, but definitely somewhere in Africa. So great. And funny. And just simply amazing.
Today has been super chill. I actually haven't even left our house except to grab lunch. We had classes this morning. I love love love our professors. They are such good teachers and just so awesome. Then I did my laundry. I know, super exciting. And then I started my next book for my Literature class, but fell asleep before I got very far. And now I'm here blogging. Tonight we're going to some candlelight something or other as a whole group so once I actually know what that is and how cool it is, I'll give you guys a better story on it. Although I feel kind of lame not really going out and doing anything tonight, I just needed a day to sleep. It's always go, go, go and the days are so long. There's no time to rest and then we don't really go to bed early so I've just been so tired these past few days. It'll be nice to go to bed a little earlier tonight.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
death
Yesterday was a day full of death.
We got up and a bunch of us went to the St. Paul's area for one of the walks we needed to do for class. It was a pretty sweet walk, especially since we took our time and made some pit stops instead of just hurrying through to get the walk done. One of the pit stops was this cute little candy shop. It was an old school candy shop with all the jars of candy on the wall. I'm thinking I may have to go back when I'm leaving because I know my sister's would love some of the candy they had there. We'll see how much I like them when that
time comes though. ;] We also stopped at this little church (which really means absolutely nothing because there are little churches on pretty much every block out here. Instead of a Starbucks on every corner, they have a church on every corner. Too bad no one out here really seems to actually attend church). They had a crypt that we went down in. First occasion of death. The pastor also told us a little about the history of the church and he was telling us that the Peeps (who did something famous but I don't remember what) had been baptized there. Too bad the first thing that pops in my mind when he says this are little marshmallow peeps being dunked in water to be baptized. I don't know why that popped in my head, but it was a ridiculously funny image and I almost laughed out loud. Later as we were walking along, my camera, which I have been using a lot, dies. This was a pretty sad death because it wasn't even noon yet so I had to spend the rest of the day with no camera.
After our walk we got some lunch and ran to the National Gallery, which is this way cool museum. We didn't actually look around very much because we didn't have a lot of time, but it's free so I'll be going back. Then we headed back to St. Paul's Cathedral for a Supertour with our entire group--but not before stopping at a little bakery and getting an amazing chocolate eclair. It's ok if your jealous. The tour was super awesome as well. St. Paul's is literally ginormous. We walked all through it and it it so beautiful on the inside. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the inside, but since my camera was dead, it didn't really matter anyways. Some of the parts of St. Paul's that I thought were super cool were the chapel dedicated to America where they have a bunch of dedicatory stuff for the American soldiers that died in Britain during WWII. Or maybe WWI and WWII...now I don't remember for sure. Then they took us to this circular stair case where, drum roll please, Harry Potter was filmed. If you will remember with me please the third movie. We have Harry on his way to Divination and what staircase do they use to get to Divination? Well, that would be the staircase in St. Paul's which leads to the library. Awesome, I know. Then we were taken to the crypt there, which is ginormous and also my 3rd experience of death. They have lots of famous people buried there (ok, I actually didn't recognize hardly any of them, but according to Mr. Tour Guide, they're famous).
Part of our Supertour was to climb up to the Golden Gallery, which is basically at the very top of the dome. So try to picture this with me (it may be helpful to look up a picture of St. Paul's to really understand what I'm talking about. First we go up 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery, which is still inside the building. It's basically around the bottom part of the dome, right before it starts to curve upwards. It's pretty cool cuz if you whisper along the wall, someone of the other side of the gallery can here you. And it had a cool view. Then we climb up some more steps to the Stone Gallery. All of the steps are inside, but they lead you outside. There is a cool view of the city but I didn't stay and look there very long because they were getting ready to close so they were trying to get everyone to go up to the Golden Gallery. Here occurs death experience number 4 and probably one of the scariest things I've ever done. I am terrified of heights. And I mean terrified. I was ok up until we got to the stairs to go to the Golden Gallery, because up until then, I didn't really have to look down at how high I was, I just had to look out. The looking out part doesn't bother me so much. But here's the thing, the stairs to go up to the Golden Gallery were those stupid metal stairs that have holes in them are there are no back to the step so you can stick your whole foot under the next step. This is where I really started freaking out. I couldn't talk to anyone, because if I did I would have burst into tears. But I couldn't turn around and go back because they have two sets of stairs, one for going up and one for going down. I also knew that I would hate myself later if I didn't do it. So 528 steps later (from the ground floor) and about 279 feet above ground, I finally make it to the top. It was definitely worth it. The view was amazing and I'm proud to say that I didn't chicken out. I will never do it again though. Especially since I freaked out even more on the way back down because it's a lot harder not to look down the stairs of death when your going down them.
After St. Paul's, we came back for dinner. A bunch of people were going to a ballet, but I didn't care enough about it to pay the price for the tickets. I was planning on staying home and getting homework done, but one of my professors had tickets to see All's Well that Ends Well at the Globe theatre, and he literally would not allow me to stay home. I told him I needed to stay home and study and he told me he didn't care. So if I don't get his homework done, I'm blaming it all on him. The play was really cool though. And we had real seats instead of standing seats, which is what most of the seats are like. I enjoy Shakespeare a lot more when the plays are being performed than when I'm reading the play. In the middle of the play, this old lady just slumped over and wouldn't wake up. Her husband kept shaking her and they ended up bringing over a medic. I literally thought she had died (thus making this death experience number 5) but eventually they got her to wake up and took her out. Surprisingly no one died in the play, which I feel like usually happens in Shakespeare plays.
I'd say it was too much death for one day, but it was a fun day nonetheless.
We got up and a bunch of us went to the St. Paul's area for one of the walks we needed to do for class. It was a pretty sweet walk, especially since we took our time and made some pit stops instead of just hurrying through to get the walk done. One of the pit stops was this cute little candy shop. It was an old school candy shop with all the jars of candy on the wall. I'm thinking I may have to go back when I'm leaving because I know my sister's would love some of the candy they had there. We'll see how much I like them when that
time comes though. ;] We also stopped at this little church (which really means absolutely nothing because there are little churches on pretty much every block out here. Instead of a Starbucks on every corner, they have a church on every corner. Too bad no one out here really seems to actually attend church). They had a crypt that we went down in. First occasion of death. The pastor also told us a little about the history of the church and he was telling us that the Peeps (who did something famous but I don't remember what) had been baptized there. Too bad the first thing that pops in my mind when he says this are little marshmallow peeps being dunked in water to be baptized. I don't know why that popped in my head, but it was a ridiculously funny image and I almost laughed out loud. Later as we were walking along, my camera, which I have been using a lot, dies. This was a pretty sad death because it wasn't even noon yet so I had to spend the rest of the day with no camera.
After our walk we got some lunch and ran to the National Gallery, which is this way cool museum. We didn't actually look around very much because we didn't have a lot of time, but it's free so I'll be going back. Then we headed back to St. Paul's Cathedral for a Supertour with our entire group--but not before stopping at a little bakery and getting an amazing chocolate eclair. It's ok if your jealous. The tour was super awesome as well. St. Paul's is literally ginormous. We walked all through it and it it so beautiful on the inside. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the inside, but since my camera was dead, it didn't really matter anyways. Some of the parts of St. Paul's that I thought were super cool were the chapel dedicated to America where they have a bunch of dedicatory stuff for the American soldiers that died in Britain during WWII. Or maybe WWI and WWII...now I don't remember for sure. Then they took us to this circular stair case where, drum roll please, Harry Potter was filmed. If you will remember with me please the third movie. We have Harry on his way to Divination and what staircase do they use to get to Divination? Well, that would be the staircase in St. Paul's which leads to the library. Awesome, I know. Then we were taken to the crypt there, which is ginormous and also my 3rd experience of death. They have lots of famous people buried there (ok, I actually didn't recognize hardly any of them, but according to Mr. Tour Guide, they're famous).
Part of our Supertour was to climb up to the Golden Gallery, which is basically at the very top of the dome. So try to picture this with me (it may be helpful to look up a picture of St. Paul's to really understand what I'm talking about. First we go up 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery, which is still inside the building. It's basically around the bottom part of the dome, right before it starts to curve upwards. It's pretty cool cuz if you whisper along the wall, someone of the other side of the gallery can here you. And it had a cool view. Then we climb up some more steps to the Stone Gallery. All of the steps are inside, but they lead you outside. There is a cool view of the city but I didn't stay and look there very long because they were getting ready to close so they were trying to get everyone to go up to the Golden Gallery. Here occurs death experience number 4 and probably one of the scariest things I've ever done. I am terrified of heights. And I mean terrified. I was ok up until we got to the stairs to go to the Golden Gallery, because up until then, I didn't really have to look down at how high I was, I just had to look out. The looking out part doesn't bother me so much. But here's the thing, the stairs to go up to the Golden Gallery were those stupid metal stairs that have holes in them are there are no back to the step so you can stick your whole foot under the next step. This is where I really started freaking out. I couldn't talk to anyone, because if I did I would have burst into tears. But I couldn't turn around and go back because they have two sets of stairs, one for going up and one for going down. I also knew that I would hate myself later if I didn't do it. So 528 steps later (from the ground floor) and about 279 feet above ground, I finally make it to the top. It was definitely worth it. The view was amazing and I'm proud to say that I didn't chicken out. I will never do it again though. Especially since I freaked out even more on the way back down because it's a lot harder not to look down the stairs of death when your going down them.
After St. Paul's, we came back for dinner. A bunch of people were going to a ballet, but I didn't care enough about it to pay the price for the tickets. I was planning on staying home and getting homework done, but one of my professors had tickets to see All's Well that Ends Well at the Globe theatre, and he literally would not allow me to stay home. I told him I needed to stay home and study and he told me he didn't care. So if I don't get his homework done, I'm blaming it all on him. The play was really cool though. And we had real seats instead of standing seats, which is what most of the seats are like. I enjoy Shakespeare a lot more when the plays are being performed than when I'm reading the play. In the middle of the play, this old lady just slumped over and wouldn't wake up. Her husband kept shaking her and they ended up bringing over a medic. I literally thought she had died (thus making this death experience number 5) but eventually they got her to wake up and took her out. Surprisingly no one died in the play, which I feel like usually happens in Shakespeare plays.
I'd say it was too much death for one day, but it was a fun day nonetheless.
Monday, May 2, 2011
here's your dang pictures already
The Prince Albert Memorial. Ignore the fact that I look like junk. This was the first day we were there so I'd spent all day on airplanes.
Prince Albert Memorial
London Eye and our Royal Wedding flags.
Big Ben
London Eye with Tara
The back of Kate Middletons head as she drives past.
The empty carriage which soon after carried William and Kate
William and Catherine
The Royal Family
At Buckingham for the wedding
There are so, so, so many more pictures but they just take soo long to load. So just be happy with these ones for now please.
class days are weird
Why are class days weird, you ask. Well because we get out of class at 1. And then we have to be back at the centre by 5:20 for a little meeting a dinner. So there just isn't a lot of time once you travel to everywhere and what not. But that's ok. A good 75% of our group made a trip to My Old Dutch to get crepes for lunch. I had an apple and cinnamon crepe. So yummy! After lunch, Hannah, Garrett and I went to the Museum of London. We have to do a project for our history class using one of the exhibits and it was a really cool museum. It's basically all about the history of London. We didn't get to spend a ton of time there though, so I may have to go back.
After dinner, Hannah and I went on another walk for out walks class. We got lost. Not surprising. I seem to be an expert at getting lost. But hey, we got to see a lot of really cool things while we were lost so I don't really care so much. And even if I one day get so lost that I never find my way back to something recognizable, I have my Oyster card so I can just hope on the bus, which I now semi know how to use and I am an expert at the tube if I run into a tube station.
So really today wasn't super super exciting, but good nonetheless. Let me share some random things I've been thinking about though.
--The tubes are sometimes like a Disneyland ride. Almost like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Sometimes you'll be riding along and it's super bumpy and the driver will kind of slow down and then jerk forward really fast. Then the tunnels come along and there are electric sparks from the train that light up the windows. And sometimes you'll be walking through the station and there are these big gust of wind, just like when your riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Pretty great and almost as magical as Disneyland.
--People watching is something that I quite enjoy doing. I don't think the people here in London really like my people watching though. I do it mostly on the tube and I kind of get dirty looks. But I just can't help it, people are so interesting. So, I've decided I don't care. I'll never see lady with the bright orange lipstick again so what do I care if she thought I was a freak for watching her and her boyfriend.
--The food at the centre needs to improve soon. So far all we've had is American food. and today we had hot dogs. hot dogs. in London. I hate hot dogs. And they are not what I want to eat while I'm in a foreign country. But Alvero's (the resident manager) wife has been out of town. She'll be back tomorrow and then things better improve. or else I'm getting my money back. Ok, not really. And I really don't care that much. But it is a tad annoying.
--I like museum tours simply for the fact that I get to listen to people with an English accent talk non-stop. I mean you would think that I would hear more people with accents, and granted I do hear it everyday and quite often. But most of the time I'm with my friends from the Centre. And we're all American. I also like when British people make jokes about America. It's funnier coming from them.
--I really enjoy the fact that even though there are only 6 boys on this trip, I almost always end up being with one of them for the day. It's nice to not have to be surrounded by all girls. Plus the boys are just way cool. and hopefully none of them ever read this comment...
--I'm going to see The Lion King play/musical/whatever it is on Wednesday. I am so excited.
--I've stopped converting pounds into U.S. dollars. I won't ever buy anything otherwise because it'll be too expensive in American dollars.
--I've also stopped keeping track of what time or even what day it is in the U.S. That part of the world doesn't feel like real life anymore. Besides, as my sister says, I'm in the future. Which basically just means I'm really cool.
--I'm also really tired, if you hadn't noticed by how pointless this post is starting to get. Off to bed I think.
After dinner, Hannah and I went on another walk for out walks class. We got lost. Not surprising. I seem to be an expert at getting lost. But hey, we got to see a lot of really cool things while we were lost so I don't really care so much. And even if I one day get so lost that I never find my way back to something recognizable, I have my Oyster card so I can just hope on the bus, which I now semi know how to use and I am an expert at the tube if I run into a tube station.
So really today wasn't super super exciting, but good nonetheless. Let me share some random things I've been thinking about though.
--The tubes are sometimes like a Disneyland ride. Almost like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Sometimes you'll be riding along and it's super bumpy and the driver will kind of slow down and then jerk forward really fast. Then the tunnels come along and there are electric sparks from the train that light up the windows. And sometimes you'll be walking through the station and there are these big gust of wind, just like when your riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Pretty great and almost as magical as Disneyland.
--People watching is something that I quite enjoy doing. I don't think the people here in London really like my people watching though. I do it mostly on the tube and I kind of get dirty looks. But I just can't help it, people are so interesting. So, I've decided I don't care. I'll never see lady with the bright orange lipstick again so what do I care if she thought I was a freak for watching her and her boyfriend.
--The food at the centre needs to improve soon. So far all we've had is American food. and today we had hot dogs. hot dogs. in London. I hate hot dogs. And they are not what I want to eat while I'm in a foreign country. But Alvero's (the resident manager) wife has been out of town. She'll be back tomorrow and then things better improve. or else I'm getting my money back. Ok, not really. And I really don't care that much. But it is a tad annoying.
--I like museum tours simply for the fact that I get to listen to people with an English accent talk non-stop. I mean you would think that I would hear more people with accents, and granted I do hear it everyday and quite often. But most of the time I'm with my friends from the Centre. And we're all American. I also like when British people make jokes about America. It's funnier coming from them.
--I really enjoy the fact that even though there are only 6 boys on this trip, I almost always end up being with one of them for the day. It's nice to not have to be surrounded by all girls. Plus the boys are just way cool. and hopefully none of them ever read this comment...
--I'm going to see The Lion King play/musical/whatever it is on Wednesday. I am so excited.
--I've stopped converting pounds into U.S. dollars. I won't ever buy anything otherwise because it'll be too expensive in American dollars.
--I've also stopped keeping track of what time or even what day it is in the U.S. That part of the world doesn't feel like real life anymore. Besides, as my sister says, I'm in the future. Which basically just means I'm really cool.
--I'm also really tired, if you hadn't noticed by how pointless this post is starting to get. Off to bed I think.
one of my favorite days of the week
Church yesterday was fantastic. But instead of blabbering on about how fabulous it was, let me just outline for you what happened.
7 am: Get and and get ready
7:50: Out the door. Walk to the tube station.
8:25: Off the tube and at the train station.
8:30: Find out that the transport website lied to us and there isn't an 8:40 train. Sit at train station.
9:08: Get on train. Which is actually really cool cuz you get to see random parts of London.
9:31: Get off the train and wait for the tram.
9:40: Get on tram.
9:45: Get off tram. Walk out of the station and stand at the corner with the other 5 people assigned to my same ward looking super confused because we have no idea where to go from here.
9:48: Barbara comes and saves us as she notices our confusion while walking to church. She shows us the church, which is right across the street, and looks nothing like an old house (which the directions said it would look like) and is under construction. So basically we never would have found it if not for good old Barbara.
9:50: Walk into the church building. Everyone we walk past says hi and they are basically just the nicest people in the whole world. We walk into the chapel and immediately triple the white people population. No lie. One of the full time elders is also white, and the couple missionaries were white. The end.
10-11: Testimony meeting. You all know how this goes. Ok, well at least all the people that I know are for sure reading this blog. If any of my non-member friends are reading, then I apologize if this makes no sense. But anyways. First of all, the bishop asks us over the pulpit to bear our testimony so we basically have no choice. But no big deal. And there always has to be the freak that gets up to bear their testimony. Now, we all love these freaks because they make our lives more entertaining and we lucked out cuz Mr. Freak was the very first one to bear his testimony. We think he had mental problems though so I did feel bad for him. But theres really no denying the fact that it's just a tad bit difficult to not laugh when he runs off the stage in the middle of his testimony. Really guys, it was pretty classic. We also had two converts bear their testimony. They had just gotten confirmed that morning and it was really great to hear them. Plus, I'm kind of a fan that I get to hang out with African men with English accents when I go to church. Not a bad deal, I'd say.
11-1: They ask me to hang out with the young women, which I'm perfectly happy to do. They were so much fun and it was so great to be with real Londoners and see things from their perspective. They kept making blond jokes, and then looking at me, laughing hysterically and then apologizing. It was pretty great.
1-3: Made our way back to the Centre.
3-12: Homework, skyped the family, fireside (which was really bizarre because the guy basically talked about nothing) and that's about it. I've decided no more homework on Sunday's though. We are allowed to go to Museums on Sunday's, so I think that's what I'm going to try to spend my extra time doing.
So even though we basically spend 7 hours at church once you factor in travel time, because our ward isn't even in London or the Greater London County but it Surrey, I love it so much and I wouldn't trade it for a closer ward at all. It's hard to really explain how amazing it was but it really is going to be one of the greatest experiences I'll have here in London.
7 am: Get and and get ready
7:50: Out the door. Walk to the tube station.
8:25: Off the tube and at the train station.
8:30: Find out that the transport website lied to us and there isn't an 8:40 train. Sit at train station.
9:08: Get on train. Which is actually really cool cuz you get to see random parts of London.
9:31: Get off the train and wait for the tram.
9:40: Get on tram.
9:45: Get off tram. Walk out of the station and stand at the corner with the other 5 people assigned to my same ward looking super confused because we have no idea where to go from here.
9:48: Barbara comes and saves us as she notices our confusion while walking to church. She shows us the church, which is right across the street, and looks nothing like an old house (which the directions said it would look like) and is under construction. So basically we never would have found it if not for good old Barbara.
9:50: Walk into the church building. Everyone we walk past says hi and they are basically just the nicest people in the whole world. We walk into the chapel and immediately triple the white people population. No lie. One of the full time elders is also white, and the couple missionaries were white. The end.
10-11: Testimony meeting. You all know how this goes. Ok, well at least all the people that I know are for sure reading this blog. If any of my non-member friends are reading, then I apologize if this makes no sense. But anyways. First of all, the bishop asks us over the pulpit to bear our testimony so we basically have no choice. But no big deal. And there always has to be the freak that gets up to bear their testimony. Now, we all love these freaks because they make our lives more entertaining and we lucked out cuz Mr. Freak was the very first one to bear his testimony. We think he had mental problems though so I did feel bad for him. But theres really no denying the fact that it's just a tad bit difficult to not laugh when he runs off the stage in the middle of his testimony. Really guys, it was pretty classic. We also had two converts bear their testimony. They had just gotten confirmed that morning and it was really great to hear them. Plus, I'm kind of a fan that I get to hang out with African men with English accents when I go to church. Not a bad deal, I'd say.
11-1: They ask me to hang out with the young women, which I'm perfectly happy to do. They were so much fun and it was so great to be with real Londoners and see things from their perspective. They kept making blond jokes, and then looking at me, laughing hysterically and then apologizing. It was pretty great.
1-3: Made our way back to the Centre.
3-12: Homework, skyped the family, fireside (which was really bizarre because the guy basically talked about nothing) and that's about it. I've decided no more homework on Sunday's though. We are allowed to go to Museums on Sunday's, so I think that's what I'm going to try to spend my extra time doing.
So even though we basically spend 7 hours at church once you factor in travel time, because our ward isn't even in London or the Greater London County but it Surrey, I love it so much and I wouldn't trade it for a closer ward at all. It's hard to really explain how amazing it was but it really is going to be one of the greatest experiences I'll have here in London.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
finding heaven
I found Heaven yesterday. It was not as easy task but it happened. Want to hear the tale?
It all started with a group walk through Regents Canal. This was one of the planned events and it was pretty cool. It was through little Italy and we got to see all the cute little boats. When we got to the finish it was at the top of Primrose Hill, which is giant, and we all felt like we were climbing up to campus again. But the view was great. You could see the London Eye, the BBC tower, the tip of St. Paul's. Way cool. My allergies were not a big fan of this walk. The pollen was crazy and my eyes were so itchy. So there probably will not be a visit back, but cool nonetheless.
We also have to do a bunch of walks around for one of our classes, which I may have already told you about. I don't remember. But one of the walks was through Regents Park so most everyone broke up into little groups to do that walk while we were already down there. This was also a cool walk and we got to see things that normal London visitors probably would go see. It was super pretty and just great all around. We were pretty much dead by the time it ended though. We had been walking straight for over 3 hours. My feet felt like they were dying. But on we kept going to Camden Market, which is one of the various markets in the area. We didn't stay long because we were in pain and there were so many people. But maybe one day I'll go back and check it out further.
This is the point in time where heaven gets just a little bit closer. I needed to go buy a book for one of my classes and instead of just finding a random book store, I decided to visit Charing Cross Road aka the road of bookstores. I was pretty excited because yes, I am a nerd and I love books. My friend Scott decided to come with me and the rest of our group stayed at Camden. We hoped on the tube and got off at Charing Cross Station. Now here's the funny part ladies and gentlemen. Charing Cross Station is not on Charing Cross Road. Stupid, I know. We check out the map, find the road and head off to our destination. Except we don't find it. Check another map and discover we've gone in the wrong direction. Head back the opposite way and still no Charing Cross Road. We stop in a few stores to ask people where it is and they all direct us back to the station. Hello. You people live in London. Charing Cross Road is famousish. I mean it's not everyone's destination when they come to London, but it had a Wikipedia page and that's where J.K. Rowling put the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. People should know where it is, for real. Anyways, finally we asked Subway dude and he knew whats up. Kind of. We had to ask about 10 questions before we got a real good answer but it was a success. In case you ever want to go there, it's behind the National something Museum and you should get off on the Leicester Square station, not the Charing Cross station.
At this point we're walking along and we finally see the street sign. I'm pretty excited. Scott seems pretty chill about it all so I contain how excited I really am about it. But there were some sweet bookstores. One had all these way old copies of books and it was just fabulous. At this point it's like seeing the light when your about to die. And then all of the sudden it happens. I really die and go to Heaven. Because right there in front of me is Foyles. Foyles is basically like an English Borders. But giant. and filled with European books. I loved it. I could have spent hours in there. And don't be surprised if I make a trip back.
Our trip home was a tad bit crazy as well. Part of the tube broke down so we had to get on the bus. I've never been on a bus so I had no idea how it worked and Scott had only been on it once. But we finally figured out which bus we needed to be on and went on our way. Until all of the sudden the bus just stops and turns of the engine. What. The. Heck. We were way confused. We got off and there were two other buses stopped in front of ours and the front bus was going to the same place so we just got on that one and found our way home.
We were home for about an hour maybe and then a bunch of us decided to go to Primark, which is this fabulous department store where everything is super cute and super cheap. It was great. We were going to go to this exhibit at the Tate Modern afterwards, but my friend Tara and I didn't actually ever make it there. We were too excited about the shopping.
Today was also a fabulous day but you'll have to hear that story later cuz it's past my bed time...
Oh. also. I know you probably hate me because there are still no pictures up. But the internet is just so slow and it takes about a million years for the pictures to load. Soon my friends, I promise.
It all started with a group walk through Regents Canal. This was one of the planned events and it was pretty cool. It was through little Italy and we got to see all the cute little boats. When we got to the finish it was at the top of Primrose Hill, which is giant, and we all felt like we were climbing up to campus again. But the view was great. You could see the London Eye, the BBC tower, the tip of St. Paul's. Way cool. My allergies were not a big fan of this walk. The pollen was crazy and my eyes were so itchy. So there probably will not be a visit back, but cool nonetheless.
We also have to do a bunch of walks around for one of our classes, which I may have already told you about. I don't remember. But one of the walks was through Regents Park so most everyone broke up into little groups to do that walk while we were already down there. This was also a cool walk and we got to see things that normal London visitors probably would go see. It was super pretty and just great all around. We were pretty much dead by the time it ended though. We had been walking straight for over 3 hours. My feet felt like they were dying. But on we kept going to Camden Market, which is one of the various markets in the area. We didn't stay long because we were in pain and there were so many people. But maybe one day I'll go back and check it out further.
This is the point in time where heaven gets just a little bit closer. I needed to go buy a book for one of my classes and instead of just finding a random book store, I decided to visit Charing Cross Road aka the road of bookstores. I was pretty excited because yes, I am a nerd and I love books. My friend Scott decided to come with me and the rest of our group stayed at Camden. We hoped on the tube and got off at Charing Cross Station. Now here's the funny part ladies and gentlemen. Charing Cross Station is not on Charing Cross Road. Stupid, I know. We check out the map, find the road and head off to our destination. Except we don't find it. Check another map and discover we've gone in the wrong direction. Head back the opposite way and still no Charing Cross Road. We stop in a few stores to ask people where it is and they all direct us back to the station. Hello. You people live in London. Charing Cross Road is famousish. I mean it's not everyone's destination when they come to London, but it had a Wikipedia page and that's where J.K. Rowling put the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. People should know where it is, for real. Anyways, finally we asked Subway dude and he knew whats up. Kind of. We had to ask about 10 questions before we got a real good answer but it was a success. In case you ever want to go there, it's behind the National something Museum and you should get off on the Leicester Square station, not the Charing Cross station.
At this point we're walking along and we finally see the street sign. I'm pretty excited. Scott seems pretty chill about it all so I contain how excited I really am about it. But there were some sweet bookstores. One had all these way old copies of books and it was just fabulous. At this point it's like seeing the light when your about to die. And then all of the sudden it happens. I really die and go to Heaven. Because right there in front of me is Foyles. Foyles is basically like an English Borders. But giant. and filled with European books. I loved it. I could have spent hours in there. And don't be surprised if I make a trip back.
Our trip home was a tad bit crazy as well. Part of the tube broke down so we had to get on the bus. I've never been on a bus so I had no idea how it worked and Scott had only been on it once. But we finally figured out which bus we needed to be on and went on our way. Until all of the sudden the bus just stops and turns of the engine. What. The. Heck. We were way confused. We got off and there were two other buses stopped in front of ours and the front bus was going to the same place so we just got on that one and found our way home.
We were home for about an hour maybe and then a bunch of us decided to go to Primark, which is this fabulous department store where everything is super cute and super cheap. It was great. We were going to go to this exhibit at the Tate Modern afterwards, but my friend Tara and I didn't actually ever make it there. We were too excited about the shopping.
Today was also a fabulous day but you'll have to hear that story later cuz it's past my bed time...
Oh. also. I know you probably hate me because there are still no pictures up. But the internet is just so slow and it takes about a million years for the pictures to load. Soon my friends, I promise.
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