Tutus, Radin and Rocks.

This past Monday night we all got dressed up and attended the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House. The performance was a showcase for four short ballets including La Valse, Invitus Invitam, Winter Dreams and  Theme and Variations. It was a fabulous performance. I had never been to a professional Ballet before this and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so fun to get all dressed up for it.

On Tuesday night I went to the Joshua Radin concert with about 15 of the girls. Until last week I had never even heard of Joshua Radin but I started listening to his music and fell in love with him. The concert was fun but it was interesting to see a concert in London. The English don't dance...or really sing along....or appreciate you pushing yourself to the front...or when you talk. If you talked you got sushhhhhed by the crowd, that was definitely a new experience. This was his last performance in the UK before heading back to the US. One of our girls made it front and center and informed him we were from Utah. Joshua Radin gave a shout out to us Utah girls in the crowd. SO awesome!!!

Anne, Me and Lisa waiting for the show to begin.

The fabulous Joshua Radin!

For the encore he came out into the crowd. I was one person behind him. That's him in the hat.
Also, here is a picture of some of us after the concert on our steps at the centre.

On Wednesday we had a fabulous day trip. We went to the Sandham Memorial Chapel. This is memorial for WWI. Stanley Spencer is the artists for this chapel.  After this we went to JANE AUSTEN'S HOUSE!!!!!! It was so fun to see where she and her sister lived. It was the house that Jane Austen did most of the writing for her most famous novels. 

This is her writing desk.

Anne, My Jane Austen professor and me.

 Our next stop was Salisbury Cathedral. This is where the oldest clock in the world is. It is a medieval clock.

 It also had the coolest baptismal font I've ever seen. This font was created in 2000. A completely modern style font in a really really old cathedral!

Stonehenge!!!! This rocks are so famous yet they are the most random things ever. 

The theory I believe: Aliens invaded the earth and left us these huge rocks.... Aliens came and all they did was place some rocks in a circle.

It was a beautiful day! We have been so blessed and have had very little rain. I hope this luck doesn't change.

That's it for now.

Cheers

The North Trip - Mr. Darcy...Vikings.....Bede....Lakes....Beatles!!!!

So I'm a little behind..sorry about that. But here goes an update on my latest adventures.

October 9th!

Jammed packed with amazingness. I started the day with field assignments. I went to the Wallace Collection, National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. After all those museums I went to the matinée performance of The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theater. It was absolutely incredible!!! This was probably the best theater performance that I have ever been too. After than I went to the Globe Theater for the final performance of Henry IV part 2. It was also amazing! All the actors started crying during the bows since it was the final performance of the season. 

Actors for Henry IV part 2

Monday October 11

The beginning of the North Trip!

Our first stop along the way to the North was Chatsworth...a.k.a PEMBERLEY!!!! I was so excited!!! I love  Pride and Prejudice so of course I loved every minute of being in Mr. Darcy's house. I even took a picture with Darcy himself!

After Chatsworth we went to the Bronte Parsonage. This is where the three Bronte sisters lived and wrote their amazing novels such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.


Tuesday
We stayed in a town called York. Tuesday was our free day to explore York, so explore we did!
I started the day at the York Minster, followed by the History of York Museum, York Castle Museum, Jorvik Viking Museum, shopping along the Shambles, Evensong at York Minster, dinner in the Assembly Halls and a Ghost Tour around York.

With our AWESOME tour guide who made me laugh, scream and cry!

Wednesday

We continued our journey North. Our first stop was Durham Cathedral. Sadly our tour guide was EXTREMELY boring but we saw the great cloister where several Harry Potter scenes were shot!

Our next stop was BEDE'S WORLD! Much to our disappointment... this is not an amusement park. It is a museum all about the life of Bede. Bede was a monk who wrote the first history of Christianity in England. There was a farm... It smelled.... I hated it....Anne and Liz LOVED it!

Our next stop was Hadrian's Wall. This used to be the border of the Roman Empire. It stretches from coast to coast. 76 miles.

Katie, Me, Jordan and Andrea on Hadrian's Wall

 We ended the night in Ambleside in the Lake District. Our hostel was right on Lake Windemere. The hostel food was gross and they ran out of food. I literally ate fries and chocolate cake for dinner. SO nutritious.

Lots of us on the Ambleside Pier

 Thursday
In the morning I went to Dove Cottage. This is where William Wordsworth lived back in the day when he still lived, late 1700's I believe. He wrote lots of poetry about nature and such. It was so dark inside and we even had electricity. I can't even imagine living back in the day without electricity. So dark and depressing.

But the Lake District is GORGEOUS!!!!
I finally gave in a bought some Wellies. I figured, What's more English than a pair of Wellies? I bought them just in time to take pictures of everyone in their wellies.

Next we crossed Lake Windemere on a ferry and hiked to Hilltop Farm. This is where Beatrix Potter lived. For those of you who don't know, she is the author of Peter Rabbit. I bought a complete collection of her books and I am so excited to read them to my children some day in the future.

Us in front of Hilltop

Before dinner there was a bit of free time so Anne and I headed for the docks, or the jetty as the English call it! Sitting by the lake at sunset was amazing! It was so breathtaking beautiful, but also breathtakingly cold!

 Friday
We left Ambleside and headed for Preston for a bit of Church History sites. We had an awesome tour guide that took us to a bunch of cool sites involving the early days of the LDS church in England. We went to the market square. This is where the first missionaries would proselyte back in 1837, it is also where President Hinckley proselyted many times, including the first night of his mission. Also on the Market Square I had the most delicious doughnuts I've ever had!

Below is where the first set of missionaries lived when they came in 1837. There were seven of them, Heber C Kimball, Joseph Fielding, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards, John Goodson, Isaac Russell and John Snyder.

This is where the first set of missionaries lived. Including Heber C Kimball

 We then went to see the Ribble River. This is where the first 9 members where baptized in England. There was a race across the bridge to see who would be the first to be baptized. The man who won, George D. Watts,  later immigrated to America and became the recorder for Joseph Smith and Brigham Young for several decades.

We got to go see the Preston Temple! It's gorgeous but technically it isn't in Preston but in a town called Chorley. I didn't realize how much I've missed being about to see I temple at least every day if not several, several times a day.

After Preston the coach drove on to Liverpool and dropped a few of us off in Liverpool. Of coarse I opted to stay for the weekend. What's more fun then immigration museums and BEATLEMANIA?!!!!

LDS statue at the Albert Dock. Where all the saints left England from.

Albert Dock

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel, Molly, Grace, Jordan, Lisa and I headed to the mall for dinner, shopping and A MOVIE!!! I miss going to the theater and seeing the movies. It was so fun. We saw Life As We Know it and loved it.

 Saturday
BEATLEMANIA!!! The Beatles adventures all day long!!
Our first stop was at The Beatles Story Exhibition. I have never gone through a museum and looked at EVERY single objects and listened to the entire audio guide until this museum! It was amazing. I've never even been a huge fan of the Beatles but I am now!

Next we met up with the rest of the group that stayed and went on the MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR!! Best 15 pounds (English money) I have ever spent! It was amazing and so much fun. We rode around on a 60's style bus that played Beatles music while taking us to all the sites including every Beatles birthplace/family home, schools, colleges, PENNY LANE, STRAWBERRY FIELD, and dropped us off at the CAVERN!!!!!!!!!!

Below is me leaving my mark at the CAVERN! The Cavern is where the Beatles got there start. They played here 292 times. Now, everyday from 12pm-2am there are performers playing for the masses of Beatles fans that come through. It was so much fun and probably one of my favorite things I've done on this trip!!! Singing and dancing along just imagining being there with the Beatles when it only cost 5 cents to get in! Also at the Cavern we got a picture of the Beatles that you can only get there, that has never been published and you can only get it with your Magical Mystery Tour ticket!

Overall the week was AMAZING as always!!! It was packed with sorts of random adventures. I can't even believe all the cools sights I've been too! But I am so excited to be out of those nasty hostels. At least for awhile that is.

Cheers

Keira Knightley aint got nothin on me!

My life just keeps getting better and better. Our day trip on last Wednesday was amazing. I don't think I've ever been that giddy before :)

Our first tour was of some ruins at Glastonbury and we hiked the Tor to get an amazing view.

On top of the Tor

Then came the fun stuff.... We went to Stourhead. I have never been so excited to get off the coach before. I was walking around the gardens, admiring the beauty of it all then I turned a corner and BAM!!!!!! This is what I saw.


For those losers who don't know this bridge, it is the bridge the Keira Knightley runs across in Pride and Prejudice, which just so happens to be my favorite movie! After taking loads of pictures with the bridge I continued through the park and BAM!




What do I see? None other than the Temple of Apollo. This is where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth in P&P. Of coarse every girl wanted to get proposed to there so little Beno did the job. He's 15. I said yes! It was EPIC!!!

Our final stop of the day was in Bath. We had 2 hours to see the Roman Baths, get dinner, see the Pump Room, see the Assembly Rooms and walk around the town. I felt like I was stepping right into a Jane Austen novel. Bath is such a cute modernized 18th century town. We did not have nearly enough time there.

Mandy, Bethany, Me, Anne and Carolyn at the Roman Baths

The healing waters in the Pump Room were delicious, as you can see from Sarryn's face. :)

Cheers