CATCH UP

This blogging this is stressing me out so I have finally come to the conclusion to focus on writing my adventures down rather than trying to add pictures. Maybe I can add pictures later. The Internet is so ridiculous that it takes an hour and a half to add half a dozen pictures. I honestly feel as though I have been in London for a year with how much I have already seen and experienced. I’m going to do a quick recap of the past two weeks. Mostly this is just for anyone who cares a lot a lot so I am not getting my hopes up that anyone really reads the whole thing. It’s going to be long...

Wednesday June 27

This was the day we took our first “coach” trip, coach being a fancy word for tour bus. Up at the butt crack of dawn (aka 6:30) I packed my lunch with the goodies Alvaro (one of the Brazilians who manages the center) laid out for us, which even included a Snickers! Luckily I snatched a window seat on the bus and was able to see even more of the city as we headed east to Dover. Dover Castle was our first stop. Nestled right on the coast, this castle had different buildings built in different centuries. The oldest I found was 12^th century. I wandered through and saw a lot of cool views. At 12 we got to go through the secret tunnels located under the castle. They told us we probably only had time for one of the two but a bunch of us (including my profs super cool wife Kindra) secretly planned to go through both of them and go through both of them we did. The tunnels were amazing. We were 15-30 meters underground. They were first used during the Napoleonic Wars. They then used them during WWII as a hospital and to get 300,000 English people out of France and back into England, otherwise known as the Dunkirk Invasion (Operation Dynamo). The tunnels were full of what it really would have looked like during WWII. They even had period newspapers that I looked through. I really love learning about WWII.

After Dover Castle we headed over to the White cliffs of Dover. I kept singing the song but no one else knew it. Luckily, I took a video of myself singing it there. It was very cloudy so we couldn’t see France but my entire group is really avid picture takers so whenever we stop anywhere we all have to take 17 bajillion pictures. It has rubbed off on me. I think I’ve probably taken 1000 pictures so far.

Next we headed over to Canterbury to see Canterbury Cathedral. The buses aren’t allowed in town so we had to walk 10 minutes to get there. Canterbury cathedral is unreal. Our tour guide was the quintessential English old man. He even had a cane. We saw the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY aka the HEAD OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. He was there practicing for when they did some ordinations later in the week. Usually he is only there at Easter and Christmas. How lucky are we? At the cathedral, we saw where Thomas Beckett was murdered in 1170 and the tombs of a lot of royalty. I love the stained glass windows more than anything. During WWII part of the cathedral was bombed and some stained glass windows were destroyed. In the 1950s, a Dutch guy was commissioned to redo them. These were my favourite ones. 4 children, each of a different nationality surrounded Christ.  On each of their clothing in conspicuous spots were the words brother and sister. Seriously any thing these days will make me tear up, including this. After we walked through the town center. Canterbury is a quaint little tourist town full of weirdos….there are a lot of grunge people from the 90s who apparently forgot that it’s now 2012...

Thursday June 28

We had class this day. We have quizzes every class for history and, let me tell ya, they cause people some major strife round these parts. I usually just wing it and it all goes okay. Every morning I love eating cereal, nutella toast, or these really weird yogurt concoctions they have here. A bunch of us girls had a hankering for Broadway (which in London is referred to as West End). We attempted to get tickets and decided to wait until after dinner to see for any last minute tickets. Dinner was super weird…half an avocado topped with fry sauce and mini shrimp. Let’s just say I had a lovely dinner of buns and salad. Mostly though our meals are pretty normal. Thursday was an anomaly. In the tube there was a landslide, so our options were slim to get to the theatre. We hopped on a random bus, hopped off at a random tube stop and somehow managed to get off at the right stop for the theatre. I need to start paying attention in the tube so I can do it by myself because I am fairly content to just follow. We got tickets to Wicked! It made our arduous and unsure journey totally worth it. We had great seats right at the back of the first floor. While waiting for the show to start we saw a boy with a BYU shirt so I convinced Janie to ask him about it. Turns out he was from Germany and had no idea what BYU was and he gave Janie the weirdest look I’ve ever seen. At least 30 times a day I die laughing, this being one of those times. I couldn’t help but compare Wicked to when I saw it last summer in Calgary and I must say it was twenty times better simply because of the British accents. Gah.

Friday June 29

So turns out the Tower of London is actually a fortress/castle and not a single tower. Please don’t mind my ignorance. Our whole group was there together but on these type of things I look around by myself so I can go at my own pace. On our way in we saw the Olympic rings on Tower Bridge! The crown jewels were pretty but kind of ridiculous to me. They have 6 giant ravens flying around at the Tower that have been there since the 1200s (obviously different birds now than then). They creeped me out. A giant armoury exhibit filled the interior building that I walked around in for at least an hour. I also saw where they kept prisoners, like Lady Jane Grey, and even where she carved her name in the tower. So cool!

One of the classes I am taking here is called “London Walks”. After the tower we did one as a group through the financial district where remnants of an old Roman wall remain. I also saw the oldest organ in Europe in one the churches we stopped at. Whenever I am in the group my friend Janie always says we apparently spot the most attractive British men in suits and in the financial district my presence did not disappoint. They were everywhere.

We ended at the London Museum, which displayed the history of the city. Interesting stuff.

This whole week we had a guest lecturer from UVU, Tim Slover, who did three lectures on theatre. I was very tired and we all couldn’t help but to sleep through his lectures. Our favourite saying of the week became “and now for naptime, sponsored by Tim Slover”. As I’m writing this now I guess it ‘s one of those things that you had to be there for or we really were just extremely overtired. Anyways naptime was great.

Saturday June 30

As a group we did another one of our walks today, starting at Burrough Market, which is full of the most delicious food I have ever tasted. As a bonus, everywhere gives free samples! Woot! I got a tomato pastry thing (soo good) and fudge, which was very chalky. We continued our way down the Thames and stopped at the Tate Modern. I had an assignment to finish so I had to stay in there for an hour and try and figure out what the heck the artists were trying to say. Modern art is weird but I actually liked it because they had explanations or rather a short history about the artist beside each piece, which I enjoyed reading much more than looking at the actual pieces of art. My favourite was definitely the pen and notebook inside of a box…. So weird. I actually did find art that I liked, the impression and modernism stuff. That night I went to Mamma Mia! For some reason in my growing up years I listened to that CD all the time, and I seriously knew every single word to every song and it even so far as me being able to know the order of the songs. Donna’s two friends were hilarious and at the end everybody stands up and starts dancing. It was such a hoot. In front of us were a bunch of old ladies were feather boas that were having WAY too much fun. Being the mature girls that we are, we decided to head to the back stage door to see if we could catch a picture with some of the super cute actors.

Highlight of the night.

A cute boy came out of the door. Emilee asks rather longingly but timidly, “Umm, can we get a picture with you?”

His reply, “Suuurrrreee (said very hesitantly), but I wasn’t in the show though….”

HAHAHAHA

As he walked away somebody mumbled, “Can we get a picture anyways, you’re cute!”

After that debacle we decided it was best to head home. Riding the tube is such an adventure every time. To everyone else on the Tube, it’s so mundane so they all look like they are going to die of boredom but I love seeing all the different people.

Sunday July 1

Happy Canada Day!

Sadly at Mamma Mia I could feel myself getting the sickness that had been going around the Center so I didn’t head over to the Trafalgar Square Canada Day celebrations. Hedley and Our Lady Peace were there though. Apparently last year 80,000 people were there. I did wear my Canada shirt! My day was spent attempting to face time and sleeping.

Monday July 2

I had classes and attempted to get over my sickness. After class Karley and I ventured to Camden Market, which is full of more grunge people. Everything is super cheap. I bought a pair of sunglasses for 5 pounds (or quid, which is the same thing. Like dollars=bucks, pounds=quid). After we headed to primark, aka the frugal fashionable shopper’s paradise. It is so packed. I got a couple things that I love and were really good priced.

SIDE NOTE – funny Tube story

A bunch of us were riding back to the Center on the tube. It was very hot and humid the first week we were here. A cute old man started talking to us on the Tube (which is very uncharacteristic of British people). He hadn’t ridden on the Tube for 10 years and was just coming back from Turkey where he had been giving a presentation on engineering. Anyways, a lady got on dressed in all black leather. He glances at her and nonchalantly said, “Well goodness, you’re hot.” The look on his face as he realized what he had just said was indescribable.  Immediately he tried to backtrack, “Uhh, ohh…I meant…you must be warm! With all those layers…uh…that’s right!” The entire time this was happening the lady just stared at him once and then simply looked into space. As soon as there was an empty seat she was gone. Meanwhile the 5 of us laughed til tears flowed down our cheeks. The man was so mortified, especially when Megan exclaimed, “I’m going to write about this in my journal!”

Tuesday July 3

 We had classes again because we left on Wednesday for our trip and would be gone for Thursday. Again just kind of a catch up day. I headed back to Primark to return a coat I didn’t love and ended up getting two pairs of pants and a skirt for 5 pounds each. Okay, so there is a boy on our program named Paul. And we read Twelfth Night. And She’s the Man quotes are applicable in any situation. So moral of the story is we say “nice work paul” and “come on paul, yeah, come on paul” at least 43 times a day. It rules. Because we were going to be gone on July 4, Thais cooked us steak and potatoes and we got ice cream for dessert to celebrate!

THE WEST TRIP

Wednesday July 4

At 7:15 we left for our West trip! Again an early start and sack lunches. All the Americans put lovely tattoos on their faces in honour of their special day. Our first stop after 2 and a half hours in our lovely bus was Tintern Abbey, where William Wordsworth was inspired. Super cool, super old, took lots of pictures. Off to Wales we went, where our visit consisted of stopping at a random castle to look at from far away and going to Big Pit coal mines. We all got suited up and rode the elevator down 300 ft. I was scared but I made it. The mine was worked for over 100 years. We saw the horses’ stalls and I had to duck to make it through all the doorways. Our guide was a Welshman who said “yeah” as a question after every other word he said. We were all a little unsure whether he wanted us to respond to it or not. That night we stayed in Salisbury. The group was split into three hotels, all of which were super ritzy. I roomed with Nicala. We lucked out and got the nicest room ever! We were seriously living the dream. We went to eat at a pub and I got venison pie. I was feeling daring. It came with chips (fries) and peas. And it was really good though extremely over proportioned.

Thursday July 5

For breakfast at our hotel, we all ordered our first traditional English breakfast: fried egg, toast, beans (yuck), hashbrowns, and a tomato. Random, filling, and surprisingly delicious. Today is the day I saw Stonehenge! It is right beside a highway and smaller than I expected. We once again had a picture palooza and though we only got to spend 20 minutes there, it was enough for me. The background on the computers here at the center is Stonehenge. I have been to a computer background!

Next we were off to the Roman baths in Bath, a city that is the center of a few Jane Austen novels. Apparently it was graduation for the University of Bath and super classy looking university graduates were everywhere in their cap and gowns. We each got our own handheld listening device and the exhibit was very informative. It blows my mind that all those things have survived. After the Roman Baths, we hiked up to see the Royal Crescent, a giant row of apartment/houses that is the backdrop for many a Jane Austen movie. I ate my first Cornish Pasty at Bath, chock full of steak and potatoes. It was not my favourite. Back on the bus we got to go to Tintagel, which is literally right on the coast. Our hostel was seriously 5 feet away from the coast. The nicest Scottish couple were there volunteering. The other half of the group started hiking from Tintagel while we drove to Boscastle, where we started hiking along the coast back to our hostel in Tintagel. It was literally the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. I want to go back right now. You couldn’t see anything but the ocean and the steep black cliffs that dropped off the hillside. The countryside beside it is full of sheep and cows and hedges that partition the fields, exactly like the movie Babe. We hiked for three hours. I bonded with basically everybody in my group. Ask anyone and they will tell you that I was having the time of my life. I was so happy to be out in that beautiful place. It was nice to get out of the city and just be in nature (as cliché as that sounds).  We made it back to Tintagel at 10, got some nice Indian food, and went back to our hostel, which was a 10 minute walk from the village. Our hostel was tiny but just perfect for one night and we got the place all to ourselves.

Friday July 6

The Jacoby family (one of my profs) made us breakfast! They are too nice! Our first stop was St. Ives, which is a coastal village full of art stores. I spent the majority of my time there frolicking on the beach. Surprisingly it was warm and sunny out. We took a lot of pictures and on our way back through the town got ice cream. Yum. My bubblegum ice cream had Smarties in it which was weird… Everywhere I’ve been in England, I always say I am going to move there, so looks like I am moving to a lot of new places….

What do you know, we got back on the bus and drove down the coast to Penzance to visit St. Michael’s Mount, a castle built on a volcanic outcropping. Again we had a picture taking frenzy on top of the castle and in the amazing gardens. There are a lot of palm trees on the West coast because the weather is so mild, which is not ever what I pictured when I think of the English coast. Because the castle is on an island, you can only walk out to it during low tide. All visitors had to be walking back to the mainland by 4:05 when high tide came in. After this we drove to Land’s End, the most southwest point on the island. As we were leaving, two cyclists rode in through a banner and were met with a cheering crowd. We all joined in the applause when suddenly one of the bikers got down on one knee and proposed! We all started whooping and hollering and now the lucky couple gets to have a bunch of random Americans in the back of all their engagement pictures. They had just biked 900 miles in 7 days from the most Northeast tip of the island. As we drove away on the bus, I started waving at them. Mind you, we were pretty far away but I just kept waving my best in the hopes that someone would notice. Well, notice they did and soon I had the entire group of about 20 people waving back at me as we drove away. Ha Ha Ha.

I lucked out and got to be a bed and breakfast called the Beachfield hotel in Penzance that night. I got a single room but was by Sarah, Abbie, Emilee, and Sarah Jane. We ate at the Boathouse Café and came back to our hotel, chilling all together journal writing and drinking hot chocolate with the rain outside and a spectacular view of the ocean. Best moment ever.

Saturday July 7

The last day of our trip we had a great continental breakfast and were on the road by 8:30 to the Eden Project. Nestled in a valley, two giant domes emerge from the landscape. They hold plants native to the Mediterranean and tropical biomes. It was cool and random. We got a great lunch that made me feel very organic.

Our last stop was at Stourhead, an estate and gardens. Because we only had time for the garden or house, I chose the garden. We saw the place in the Keira Knightly version of P&P where Darcy first professes her love to him! The gardens were amazing and huge and I even ran into some Canadian Geese. For the last time, we got on the bus and drove the 3 hours home. Our bus driver was named Kevin and we loved being able to talk about him like we knew him. All in all, the trip went by way too fast and I had so much fun, saw so many amazing things and made really funny and fun memories with the people in my group!