Trip North Part 2

November 8

Waking up in a hostel is not one of the most pleasant feelings I’ve ever experienced. 4/10: would not recommend. And then to top off my wonderful hostel morning, I went to breakfast where I was fed what some would consider food: poorly baked beans, soggy toast and milk. Highly nutritious. I always wondered what my Scotsman ancestors lived off of. So after we got going for the day we had a wonderful tour around Edinburgh by a former BYU student currently doing his doctorate degree at the University of Edinburgh. It was random, but it was fun to get shown around by a fellow American. Then we all went up to the Edinburgh Castle walked around the castle and saw all sorts of Scottish things. It was beautiful up there! You could see the whole city. We took a lot of pictures. After we finished at the tower we went to into town and went shopping around for some souvenirs. It was really fun in these shops because they had some of my favorite things: shortbread, Celtic jewelry, and a lot of Macdonald family stuff. So I bought a scarf and considered buying my father a kilt, but then decided that would be a bad idea. I don’t want to subject anyone to the sight of my father in a kilt. Sorry pops.

Once we were done shopping we decided to hike this volcano that everyone had talked about. Where you supposedly get a 360 degree view of the whole city. I was STOKED, but one of our friends was unfortunately in a 5 pound boot because she had torn her ankle in a running accident when we were in the French Loir Valley. But, she's a trooper and said she could climb it. Unfortunately, no one had told us the hike constituted 2 different mountain climbs. And I guess we took a wrong turn because we hiked up a very rocky, steep incline for about a half an hour just to find out that we have yet another mountain to hike once we had descended that one. But long story short, we basically carried Kylie up the mountain. To say I was sore that night would be an understatement.

After our fun little mountain climb we didn’t know what else to do, really because everything closes around 5 o’clock. So I decided to go on a ghost tour with 2 of my friends through the catacombs underneath the city. It was one of the funnest things I’ve done this entire trip! Our guide gave us some history and background on the city of Edinburgh and then took us to the vaults to show us the scarier history of it. They had a room full of old torture devices that the owner had creepishly gathered throughout his lifetime, which was just gross. I got a little nauseous during that part. But then he actually took us into the vaults and told us some scary stories about them. There was one vault that was locked up and had a bunch of weird worship stuff in it and I honestly thought it was a room for satanic rituals so I didn’t want to look in it. But our guide told us it was a room that a society of Wickens rent out and worship in a few times a year. Apparently they used to occupy a room 2 vaults down but they said there was such bad energy and demons there that they had to move. They tried telling the owner that he shouldn’t let anyone in that room because it isn’t safe, but the man owns a ghost tour, so of course he kept it open. So the Wickens, to make it safer, made a circle of stones to contain the negative energy.

Then he asked us if anyone would want to go in the circle and gave a bunch of stories of things that happen to people who go in the circle. He was saying that most of them email the company later and say that they saw shadows or felt presences when they returned to their hotel rooms at night. Then one girl who was staying in my room went in the circle. Stupid girl. I don’t like that stuff so I wasn’t going to mess with it. Then it got even worse because he took us into a room that was completely dark except for his flashlight and he told us about how in that vault it has a connecting vault that is blocked off because it’s structurally unsound. But since it’s blocked off you can still see the top of the other vault over the board that had been nailed in the doorway. He told us that people sometimes see the ghost of a woman up there with long dark hair and wearing all white with her hands over her face and they always ask if it’s an actress up there because she looks so real. But one time a man was in there by himself checking the vaults as he was locking up and saw the woman at the top of the doorway and stopped and stared at her, then she moved her hands and let out a blood curdling scream so he ran out of there as fast as he could. Then the next day he got a call that his sister had died in a car accident and he found out that it was a banshee. And as he said, the banshee will show itself to you and scream when someone close to you is about to die. And then he turns off the flashlight. So naturally we are all staring up at the doorway the whole time hoping not to see anything and then he turns off the light and we start screaming and sprinting towards the door. It was so scary, but so much fun! And in all honesty, it was really scary down there and just felt kind of weird. It was one of the funnest nights I’ve had so far.

Trip North Part 1

November 5

Today we started our fun little trip up north and hopped on yet another bus for probably the 500^th time in the past month. This bus driver’s name is Jason. He’s no Peter, but he seems better than Villam, at least. After we drove for a while we came up to the Preston temple and got out of the bus to walk around for a little bit. That temple is beautiful against the forest scenery. We mostly went to find the bathroom, but it was still fun to see it.

Then we continued with our little bus trip and before we got to our destination, we had a tour with this cute little man in Preston where he showed us some church history sites like where they baptized the first saints in England and where President Hinckley lived when he was on his mission. This man was so incredibly fast… It was decently hard to keep up with him and his speedy legs.

Then we finally got to the Lake District and I was blown away! It’s seriously one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my life. The whole thing looks like it’s straight out of a fairy tale with the rolling hills, changing fall leaves, lakes and rivers, and the cute little town that was built into the landscape. At this destination we got spoiled by getting to all be in these adorable little bed and breakfasts. The one that I got assigned to was so cute, the little man and his wife who own it came out and greeted us and told us about some fun things to do in town and how excited they are to have students staying with them. I love bed and breakfasts! Honeymoon destination found. Then after we got all settled a few of the girls I was staying in the b&b with went to walk around town and find dinner and of course we stumble upon this little candy shop. I got some chocolate covered peanut brittle. It was delicious. Then we still had to locate some food, but in Europe they like to do this thing where they close everything at 6. But we found a place called China Cottage and ventured inside. It was surprisingly good. I got chicken chow mein and it was legit Chinese food with lots of veggies. But they were good veggies (except for the creepy little baby corns) so I didn’t mind.

November 6

At about 7 I got up to go on a hike with some of the girls in our b&b that our professors had outlined for us. Naturally, thinking I have no internal body heat, I bundled. A lot. I had 2 pairs of socks, running shoes, 2 pairs of leggings, 2 shirts, a sweatshirt, a down coat, a big scarf, a hat, and gloves. I didn’t want to be cold. But it was very unneeded since I practically just wore my coat around my waist like a 10 year old the whole hike. Attractive is what I call that. The hike we went on was beautiful! We went up a big hill that looked out over the entire valley and I’ve never seen anything like it. You could see farms, villages, lakes, and orange and red forests. I could have sat up there forever, but sadly we had learning to do so we had to descend so we could shower and go to our poetry workshop.

 

After the fantastic hike we went to the Wordsworth Trust and the curator gave us a big lesson on the poetry and showed us some of Wordsworth’s actual manuscripts. It was really interesting to see how he wrote because he would just put his ideas all over the paper in seemingly random order and then somehow pull a poem out of the mess. I don’t know how, but kudos to him and his mish mashed mind. I also got to touch some very expensive things. The curator had me put away the book that was worth 42,000 pounds. I’m kind of a big deal. Then after the workshop they let us all go into the Wordsworth cottage and see where they lived and wrote. They fed us in there… It was awful. We got some kind of weird mushy rice dish with bland boiled potatoes and bland sweet potatoes with some nasty tart lemonade that was brown. I don’t trust brown lemonade. Followed by a dessert that was straight cream with some lemon nastiness in it. It made me very sick, to say the least. But after that ordeal we got to sit in the dark in the main room and read Wordsworth poems by candlelight. That part was really cool, so it made up for the crap they made us shove in our mouths.

November 7

This bus will be the death of me. But it takes me to magical places, so I guess I can’t complain too much. Our next destination on our way to Edinburgh was Hadrian’s wall, which we learned is just a giant wall put in place by the Romans to keep out the Celts. So we took some pictures with some old rocks. Then we drove to castle stones which is just like Stonehenge, but miniature. I wasn’t too impressed. But then we took some more pictures with some even older rocks. We love rocks, apparently.

Then we finally got to Edinburgh where I’d wanted to go since this program started! I have heard so much family history about my Scottish ancestors that I wanted to see where it all took place. Granted, my family is from the Scottish highlands where the bloodthirsty brutes were from, not the city, but I still felt like I was one with the Scots. If I’m going to be this white, I better at least have some sort of cool family heritage. Unfortunately, when we got to the city it was about 7 o’clock and everything was closed down. But we found a cute little Italian place (I wasn’t really feeling the haggus much) and then walked around Princes street and looked in the closed shops. I also got my first experience with a hostel… Not my favorite thing in the world. Any place that you have to put the sheets on your bed, is already something I am going to be vehemently opposed to. I mentally psyched myself into thinking there were small parasites on every inch of that nasty room so I had trouble touching anything. But all I needed it for was to sleep. Which was a little difficult seeing as I was practically sleeping on a flat steel board. One of my best nights of sleep to be sure…

The Calling from Hell

November 4

For real, though. Just let me tell you about my Sunday. We got to church just fine and everything and sat through a rather uneventful fast and testimony meeting. Then we go up and ask the bishop where he wants us to help out or if he just wants us to go to Sunday school. Unfortunately for us, we were needed. Two of the primary presidency counselors didn’t show up, so they needed our help containing in the primary. I had no clue what I was in for. We go into sharing time and there are kids everywhere running, screaming, hopping like frogs across the floor, and pulling each others’ hair. Our job: control the children. I plopped myself right in the middle of the room around some of the kids and thought to myself, ‘well, once she starts teaching they will calm down a little bit.’ That was a little bit true, but mostly not. I sat right next to a little boy named Lloyd who was quite a little… doll. I think he was about 6 and just out of control. He sat and tried to put my hair in his ear, put my hair over his head to pretend he was blonde (he was dark as night), and kept asking me over and over questions about my personal life. He was quite a funny little boy, but in the middle of sharing time, I wasn’t having it. So I was sushing him every other second and trying to keep him at least from yelling in the lesson. Then Taylor and I switched children and I was now in charge of controlling Rosy. Rosy is Lloyd’s sister. Good heavens, I want to know what happens in that household. Rosy is about 4 years old and hopped right up onto my lap and grabbed my purse and put it on her and started playing with the key asking me if it was a proper key. “What can I open with this? Can I open the door? Can I open the food cupboard? Can I open up the chest? What can I open?” She was firing questions at me so fast, I didn’t know what to do. Then since it was singing time, we stood up to play head, shoulders, knees and toes and she spent the duration of the time stamping on my feet with her boots. What a sweet little girl she is. Then when junior sharing time was done, we were set free and allowed to go to relief society. Apparently we did such a good job being punching bags, they want us to come back every week. So my calling is “child wrangler”. Kill me.

School=Buzzkill

October 29

I'm so tired of doing school. I just want to go have adventures in London! Oh I hate being an adult and being all responsible and shiz. But whatever. On Monday I didn't do a whole lot because we have a midterm on Thursday (my birthday, mind you) and I've been getting stuff done for class. My day started, though, at a very unfortunate time: 6 AM. I had to sign up for my classes for winter semester and since 6 AM my time is midnight Utah time I had to drag my lifeless body out of bed and sign up for classes that I don't even want to be taking in the first place. But that's over now and I've committed myself to 3 months of a whole lot of writing and statistics problems. After I finished that and finished with class we went on a walk for our London Walks class through South Kensington, also known as Albertopolis, because of all the museums and colleges that are all around that area. It was an interesting walk, we saw the Holy Trinity Church, the Brompton Oratory Church, Royal Albert Hall, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. I loved going into the Victoria and Albert Museum. I haven't gone to one in a while, so I was better able to appreciate it and have a good time looking at all of the art and the exhibits. We also bought tickets to go into the special ball gown exhibit and see some beautiful dresses that famous people have worn. It was cool, but not worth 7 pounds. Just for future reference.

October 30

Things I did:

- Went to Regent Street
- Went to Oxford Street
- Went to Covent Gardens
- Saw some crazy jugglers
- Saw some 16 year olds rolling cigarettes on the tube

Good deed for the day: I found a homeless man sitting on Regent Street and he had a sign that wasn't asking for money, it just said, "I'm very hungry" so I gave him the other half of my bueno bar that I hadn't eaten yet.

October 31

Halloween! Halloween isn't as big of a deal here, which is a bummer but we still had a good time. We started out our All Hallows Eve by going to the Greenwich Market, which is known for going all out for Halloween. It did not disappoint. It was a smaller market, but all of the people who were running the booths were dressed up and helping to run the little show they had going on for the kids. It was so much fun! I even got myself this chicken bowl from a sketchy little Chinese booth. It was so good... Super scary, though. They were pulling meat out from underneath tables so that wasn't too comforting. But it tasted so good, I could ignore it and I could ignore the little bones I was pulling out of my mouth as I ate it.

 After the market we continued on with our festivities and went to this really cool cemetery in Greenwich and walked around. That cemetery was so cool! It's super old so all of the graves were tilted in every which direction and they just kind of leave the graves alone so there's vines growing all over everywhere and the trees are huge. It made it kind of eerie, which as you can imagine, is perfect for Halloween. We even saw Karl Marx's grave. It was interesting... He had his giant head placed on a big monument to his name. Scary as well. Then for dinner we decided to dress up so about 15 of us got together and dressed up as denim. Yes, denim. I wore jeans, a denim button up, and my jean jacket with a very attractive hair bow acting as a bow tie. And to top off the irresistible attractiveness, our hair was in pigtails like a 5 year old child. It was a lot of fun, though :) it was a good Halloween abroad. Even if I had to spend the rest of it studying for an English midterm.

November 1st

Happy birthday to me! Want to know what I did to start out my twentieth birthday? I took a midterm. It was quite a good start... Ha yeah good one. But then Lily and Alex were sweethearts and went to Starbucks and got me a strawberries and cream frappucino and some shortbread cookies for breakfast. Two of my favorite things :) it made it a lot better. After class we went to High Street Kensington and looked for a big down coat for Scotland. But then that was cut short because we had to go to religion class at 2.

After our second block of class we went over to Oxford street and went back on the search for a solid coat that won't make me freeze to death. Unfortunately, I found one. And down coats are EXPENSIVE. I found a coat that I fell in love with at Nike and practically cried as I forked over the dough for it. But I'm happy I got it. It's so ridiculously warm and I've worn it every day since. Goodbye Cassie's money, it's been nice knowing you. Then after that we went to Tinseltown by our house and got some shakes to end my happy birthday.

It was kind of sad being away for my birthday. I missed my family a lot and just being home for it. I was missing going out to dinner with everyone. That was one of the first times I was really homesick. I don't have a lot of time here to be homesick since we have so much going on all the time, but I really do miss my family. But I'm in London, so I can't be too sad :)

November 2

Thank the heavens for my down coat. Friday we went up to Dover and Canterbury and it was so incredibly cold... It made me super excited for our trip 5 hours north of that. But we started out with Dover and seeing the castle and the underground tunnels that they used in WWII. They were very decked out... They had put the tunnels back to how they would have been in the 30's with all of the communication and bunkers put back together. The castle was also really cool, too, because they had put furniture in it and made it look like it did when people lived in it, just like the tunnels. They also had fires going, which I definitely appreciated.








After Dover we made another trek up to Canterbury. That town was so cute! It looked like it was straight out of a fairytale with the old English buildings and the gardens. The cathedral was so cool, too! I like the times when we have guides to take us through the cathedrals, though. We had this cute old man take us through and just tell us some of the history behind it and the story about Thomas Gainsborough who was killed there. I love those little English towns so much :)



November 3

We literally went for 16 hours straight just going, going, going. We started by getting up at 6:30 to go to the Harrod's Christmas Parade. It's just the beginning of November, but I guess since they don't like Thanksgiving here, they just have 2 solid months of Christmas. It was kind of a strange cacophony of Disney characters, jugglers, clowns, and horses, but then Santa came out (Father Christmas to the Brits) and it was a little more Christmassy. Once we finished ogling at the parade, we went to 3 different museums for our classes. We started out with the National Portrait Gallery, then the National Gallery, and to top it off, the Tate Britain.

Our next fun activity that the program set up for us was a football match out in the boonies of London. The English like their soccer... There was this crazy drunk guy a few rows behind us yelling at the teams and taking off shirt every time a goal was made, so that was interesting. Our seats were so close it was weird. We were about 8 rows back, so you could easily see the players. The game was between Fulham and Everton, two teams I obviously didn't know, but they seemed to kick the ball pretty well... I don't know. Apparently it was a big deal because the goalie of the US National team, something Howard, was the goalie for the Everton team. Let's just say that a group of 35 girls was a little out of place there.

After our game finished we were ravenous so we went to this place called Tortilla and got some fantastic Mexican food and made a friend in the tube station. He was a worker and he wrote a book so he told us to read it. Interesting. For those who don't know, it is Guy Fox Weekend. This is a holiday celebrating the fact that a man named Guy Fox, who was planning on blowing up parliament was caught and consequently hung till he was almost dead, dragged through the street behind a horse, and then quartered. Bloodthirsty Brits. But yes, they celebrate this event every year by having fireworks all around the country so we went to Blackhearst and watched a big fireworks show. It was such a fun little place, they even had this little carnival going on with food booths, rides, and haunted houses. I love days where we go all day long.

I'm going to die here...

October 28

Today was the first day of my imminent doom. Also known as my first day of church in the Lea Valley Ward. These next few Sundays of my life are sure to be filled with all sorts of fun surprises. Well, I suppose I'll explain myself. So we get off the tube, mind you it was the last stop so it was on the outskirts of town and step out into what I can only describe as the Harlem of London. The streets were crawling with nasty people who look like they snort cocaine in their spare time and who would like to take advantage of 3 young blonde girls. You know, normal stuff. So we were walking down this street trying to find the chapel, all the while passing sketchy people and sketchy stores, not exactly sure where the turn is. One of the banks that we passed even had a sign on the door that said, 'for the safety of our staff, we have shut down this branch'. That made me feel safe. We finally found a map on the back of a bus stop and realized we had gone too far, so we turned around and about 2 blocks down the road this sharply dressed middle aged man came up next to us asking if we were looking for the LDS church. We must have looked a little out of place... I mean just a shot in the dark. We heard a car's exhaust pipe pop and thought we were getting shot at, all 3 of us jumped so high. But so this nice man told us where the church was and that he was going there, too. He even asked if we were from BYU, after we said yes he was telling us that he could always pick out the BYU students in those parts.

After we finally finished our scary journey to the chapel, we met with the bishop and he asked us all about our previous callings and whether we could play the piano. It was the first time in my life I was grateful that I couldn't play the piano. We also found out that we had a talk assignment in 2 weeks, lucky us. Now this ward that we are now a part of is quite an interesting one, to say the least. If you walked into that chapel not knowing where you were, you'd think you were in the middle of the Congo. Everyone was dark brown and had immigrated from some part of Africa so it's kind of hard to understand them sometimes. There's also a few mexicans thrown in there, too, so we were definitely about 3 of 8 white people in the whole congregation. It's going to be a cultural experience, that's for sure.

The best part about church, though, was the fact that during the third hour we had a combined relief society and priesthood meeting to talk all about safety. Topics covered:
- Keep the chapel doors locked at all times, unless it is between 1-4 on Sunday afternoons during church
- Women are under no circumstances allowed to leave the chapel alone after dark or even dusk
- Children are to be kept in the classrooms at all times and kept a good eye on so that no one wanders into the building and steals peoples' offspring
- Anytime you come to building when it is not church, ring the doorbell and identify yourself
- Don't let anyone in the building you don't recognize
- Pick up your children right at 4
- Be wary when you leave the building

I think that quite sums up my church experience. Let the fun begin!

Get this done...

October 18

I'm just going to pound out what I've done all these days that I've been to lazy to record in one post and be done with it...

- Went to class
- Went on a London Walk through Kensington Gardens
- There were some crazy squirrels that tried to get me to feed them, I'm practically the squirrel whisperer
- Went and saw Wicked and almost died because I loved it so much
- Got a white chocolate bueno milkshake with raspberry swirls

October 19

- Woke up
- Bought train ticket
- Went to Cambridge University
- Saw a guy karate chop a military issue duffle bag and calmly walk away
- Marveled at the beautiful campus
- Missed Thaise's wonderful cooking
- Ate left over pizza

October 20

- Went to Portabello Market
- Went to Borough Market
- Consumed a fantastic burger
- Saw London Bridge and took some sweet pics

October 21

- Went to church at Hyde Park Chapel for Stake Conference
- Accidentally took a 6 hour nap

October 22

- Went on a walk to Buckingham Palace
- Saw a beefeater yell at a guy who got in his face

October 23

- Went to the British Museum
- Wrote another 4 page paper
- Found platform 9 3/4

October 24

- Saw the opera Julius Cesar
- Hated it
- There was this super weird modern dancing going on with it that I didn't understand, at one point the dancers came out dressed as birds and were doing step touches across the stage

October 25

- Went to afternoon tea at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens
- Had the "Fall Ball"
- Got to see my professor dress in a tutu, sparkly bow tie, and crown and dance around to big band music

October 26

- Packed a lunch
- Went to Stonehenge
- Froze my butt off even though I had a million layers
- Went to Stourhead Gardens
- Place was absolutely beautiful
- Saw the lake, the cottages, the church, the mansion, the pantheon, and a temple of Apollo
- That temple is where Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth the first time in the newer Pride and Prejudice

- Walked around Leicester Square and Picadilly Circus and went to M&M world

October 27

- The kitchen almost got lit on fire
- Went to the NFL rally for a total of 10 minutes
- Went shopping on high Kensington Street and I found a cute Union Jack watch for 5 pounds
- Tried to see Phantom, but it was sold out



Whew! All caught up :)

And They Walked and Walked and Walked

October 16

Who knew Hyde Park was so gigantic? Today I went on a run through Kensington Gardens and made my way into Hyde Park and just chillin there was this gigantic lake. Who knew, right? It was so pretty. I love this place... I'm gonna stay here. Just live as a hobo and play some kind of instrument in the tube and get 5 pounds per day. I'll play the kazoo. So after my little run, and after class, we had to go on another stupid walk for my London Walks class and this one was stupid. Super stupid. It was all in the financial district and it was just looking at buildings about financial stuff. It was not fun one bit, buildings aren't super awesome. Once I finished that stupid walk, I went on back home and had another fantastic meal by Thaise of cous cous and curry chicken. So fantastic... Then I exiled myself to my room and did some homework. School is ruining my education. My education of life.

October 17

So I'm gonna try to smash another little blog post so I can attempt to catch up on the past 10 days of blogging that I have neglected to do. Once I was done with another day of monotonous class the whole group went over to the Westminster library because for some reason the city of Westminster thinks it is imperative that we have a library card for these 2 months that we will be spending here. I mean we don't have a library of our own 3 floors down. Oh wait... whatever. And not to mention that library was about 1000 degrees. Not an exaggeration. For the most part. Once we were done with the library I had to trek on over to the Prince Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens and study every facet of that memorial so I could construct a four page paper on how that memorial is a good reflection of the Victorian Age. Then I got to spend the rest of my night writing said paper. Oh the fun of schoolwork.

Life's hard sometimes.