Home sweet...home.

Long story short: I flew back from London last Thursday. :(
I'm missing it more than I thought I would. Even little things like wanting to walk along the Thames to the Tate Modern, or going to a random concert or play make me a little teary-eyed. I would even ride the Underground with all of its sauna-like qualities if it meant being in London again. The situation was not helped today by my watching DCFC's video of "I Will Possess Your Heart." It has many scenes of London and Paris that are very familiar to me. I miss walking down the pavement to Kensington Gardens and having to watch out for crazy cab drivers. I miss the rubbish. I miss seeing Roman ruins, a medieval church, and a modern sky rise within the same block. I miss the rain and the clouds in the morning, and the sun on Westminster Bridge in the evening. I miss my ward and the little kids from primary.

I think it's just going to take time to get acclimated back into SLC's rhythm. Because I really did throw myself headfirst into London and it's been a little bit of a culture shock to be home. But I'm sure that the jet-lag doesn't help with things. It's getting better though; yesterday was a peaceful, quiet day. I woke up at 8 and made Amish baked oatmeal with strawberries for everyone, and then snuggled Cara until it was time to get ready for church. After church we took Abby for a walk and then sat outside talking about our trip to Orlando coming up in two days. Today I've been working on getting my pictures organized. Thanks to Kristin's Snapfish know-how, my pictures are being put into an accessible format for the masses. I'll let you all know when and how to view them when they're ready. Au demain...

High-waisted skirts.

I am loving these outfits from Anthropologie. They are everything I love about spring fashion. Oh to have a life with unlimited cash...

The winding up.

Okay so I lied. I have yet another blog to write before I leave London. I know, you're all so happy and are now flinging open your windows to shout hallelujahs to the wondering streets below. I can picture it now.

Today we went on a nine-mile country walk in Kent with Brother Chittock. He's a pretty awesome old guy, one of those spry types that never fails to warm my heart with the possibility of aging with dignity. He lived through the Blitz and spoke to us on Tuesday about what it was like. Feel free to peruse my history blog (it's the one marked "My History of Britain blog") to learn more about the Blitz. It's a charming chapter in British history, no doubt.

The walk took us through villages, poppy and wheat fields and a driving range. I wanted to pick up a golf ball for my dad, but was scared to do so after we all received the "It's Stealing" speech from Bro. Chittock's brother, Ron. So I refrained, with the help of one Kristin Lowe, to whom I now owe the salvation of my soul. Ever the friend, Kristin is. We ate lunch/took a nap amongst the ruins of a Norman castle and then walked some more to a farmer's market, the best I've been to so far. I bought Kentish Lavender ice cream, which tasted more appealing than it sounds, and also a bottle of local apple juice. I'm definitely digging the farmer's markets here and want to look into what Utah has to offer when I get home.

Speaking of home, yes, I will be returning, even if unwillingly. I am excited for a possible internship though. It will involve copy writing for a skincare company, and since health is a major interest of mine I feel this will be a great opportunity. Particularly since the last two interns were hired eventually. I've also been accosted by a professor of mine from last semester, the somewhat pedantic and always self-effacing (sarcasm alert) Lance Larsen, official Poet-in-Residence of BYU. He has personally invited me to take a graduate poetry workshop that he'll be conducting this fall. I feel a little overwhelmed and appreciative of him considering me for this since I'm only an undergraduate, but at the same time I can't help but doubt his sincerity. I wonder if he only wants to fill his class. This is the professor that awarded me the Academy of American Poets prize, which means he's only read one poem of mine, leading me to wonder if he has any idea of what he's getting himself into by this vote of confidence. But I am considering it. I'm only taking three classes this fall anyway, and I might as well explore this poetry thing further, if for nothing else than the experience and networking that Dr. Larsen has to offer. We'll see. I've taken his advice and have been reading as much of 20th century poetry as possible, as well as have been writing. Mostly ideas and outlines of poems rather than the things themselves, but it's a start.

Oh, such a drama-fraught life I lead. Haha...not really. I'm enjoying every day and am so happy with everything right now. Of course I have aspects of my life that I wish were different, mostly concerning the problems of other people that I'm sad they have to deal with, but for the most part, I wouldn't wish anything different of what I'm doing right now. I'm a little flustered and excited at the prospect of being graduated this time next year and starting the next stage of my life, i.e. career. Two girls on the program right now are graduated and this was a last little hurrah for them, and I can already see myself in their shoes in the not so distant future. And I can't wait.

Last blog in London, I think.

Things are getting really crazy around here now that the term is winding down and we're going to be going home next week, but I think I should write one more blog from London. Here's a quick rundown of this week:

Monday
I went to my last English class where we discussed Milton and Paradise Lost, some George Herbert, and a little bit of the unconquerable John Donne. I also started finishing some of my blogs for history because I wanted to get them done this week so next week would be free to enjoy my last few days in London.

Tuesday
I finished some more blogs, and then went to the Churchill Museum and War Cabinet Rooms with my history class. The rooms were pretty impressive since everything is basically the same way it was when World War II ended. It was an eye-opener to think of how hard everyone had to fight to keep the Germans from invading during the Blitz.

After the museum I wandered home through St. James's Park and did some more blog work. After dinner I went to Hairspray with a bunch of people; it was so amazing! The energy was fantastic and a lot of people were dancing by the end. It was everything West End show should be: an involved audience, good music and energy and talent, etc.

Wednesday
We made our last day trip out to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. Blenheim Palace was beautiful--what Stourhead had in gardens, Blenheim has in house. Movies like Harry Potter and Indiana Jones (think Nazi book-burning rally) have had scenes filmed there. I would definitely go back someday to explore the grounds some more.




Oxford was, in a word, fabulous. I definitely prefer it to Cambridge. I'll post some pictures to explain everything we saw.
The Radcliffe Camera.

The gate tower of Christ Church College, which we eventually went into.

The main quadrangle of Christ Church College.

The Great Hall of Christ Church College, as seen in Harry Potter.


A view of All Souls' College from the tower of the university church.

The famous Blackwell's bookstore has a room called the Norrington Room, in which 160,000 books are available on 3 miles of shelves. Buahahaaa...

One entrance into the Bodleian Library. I would love to be a student here just to be able to use this library.

My personal favorite: The Eagle and Child pub, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien met with their literary group, The Inklings.

Other notable happenings in Oxford included drinking a delicious peach shake and wandering around cobbled, narrow streets, and buying a sweatshirt and two t-shirts. Yay for Oxford.

Our last overnight trip.

This past weekend we took our final overnight trip to Bath, Stourhead, and Stonehenge. We left at 8 am on Friday and drove two hours to Bath. The Jane Austen fans reading this know the importance Bath plays not only in her depictions of Regency-era aristocratic life, but also in her own life, as she lived in that city for a number of years. The city was completely different than I had expected; it was set amidst rolling hills, the main part of the city residing in a little valley next to the Avon. It's extremely gorgeous country out in the west of England--it's also Thomas Hardy Country, or Wessex, so I was doubly in heaven. More than once I imagined the Reddleman from The Return of the Native coming over the hill in his cart, or Jude sitting under a tree in a field learning Latin and dreaming of Oxford. When we got to Stonehenge, it was easy to picture Tess and Angel Clare running away from the police before Tess dies on the altar at Stonehenge. Yeah, I'm kind of a Hardy fan. ;) One of the coolest things we saw in Bath were the Roman baths that have been there for over 2000 years; the Sacred Spring the Romans built a temple around had been in use by the Celts even before that. The most amazing thing is that the water still runs through all the original Roman ductwork and stone vaults. Derek would have totally loved it, seeing as he is the Roman aficionado of the family.

We also saw Bath Abbey, but didn't go inside--at this point, we're all a little cathedraled out. After eating lunch in the square, we returned to the bus, which took us to the hostel. This hostel was absolutely amazing. It was a converted manor house and was made of stone and surrounded by trees on this hill. I loved it. The room was the cleanest so far of all our hostels, and one room even had a usable stone balcony that looked over the front garden. After checking into our hostel, Kristin, Kaitlin and I walked down the hill to the city centre and wandered around the city. We went to the Royal Crescent (see the new [Masterpiece Theatre?] version of Persuasion for the best example of this), which is a spectacular row of Georgian houses in the shape of, you guessed it, a crescent.

We stretched out on the enormous lawn facing the Crescent and took a rest/nap, watching the cricket/lacrosse/football players. It was nice to relax in such a historic part of the city. On our way back to the hostel we bought some food for dinner and next day's lunch at Waitrose. Bed was great that night, as it is any night when I've been walking up death hills in the sweltering sun.

The next day we made our way to Stourhead, which is famous for its gardens. And for good reason. They are fantastically beautiful; every picture I took looked unreal.

The 1 3/4 mile garden path took us around the grotto, parkland, the Pantheon, and the Temple of Apollo. The Temple might be familiar to you if you've seen the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice. The rain scene? Yeah, it was filmed there. So that was kinda cool to see that. All the girls were swooning, of course. The thought of Mr Darcy has that effect on some people, I guess. Once we finished our meander through the gardens, we headed over to the house, which was unimpressive in its own right, albeit cool to think that people actually lived in such a beautiful place. They had a Steinway that some of the girls were allowed to play on, and I totally wish Cara or my mom could have been there and been like, "This is how you play on a Steinway," but oh well, next time. The house also had the coolest library ever, and I am completely set on having at least one room in my house lined with shelves of books. I loved it.


After the house tour we went back to the bus and drove another hour to Stonehenge. There's something about all the old, iconic sites for me (like Ben, Eiffel, etc) that have so much energy that makes me love them. Stonehenge was no exception. I mean, like Talbot said, it makes all the medieval and Roman sites we've been visiting seem like a drop in the bucket in terms of history and time. I mean, they've been there for nearly 10,000 years. Geez. I bought some cool souvenirs, including a wool picnic blanket to make up for my not buying one in Edinburgh, which I plan to make full use of on my return home. After Stonehenge we filed back on the bus and made it back to London just in time for dinner, which for Kristin and I involves the token Saturday night trip to Ned's Noodle Bar (Lonely Heart meal: spring rolls, Diet Coke, and chicken yakisoba).

It's weird to think that we only have a day trip to Blenheim Palace and Oxford, and then the program is basically over. On a scale of 1 to excited I'm not excited for the English final, but it's my only one so I shouldn't complain. I am happy to be coming home though, to be able to snuggle Cub and talk to everyone and give them their presents. Yay for home!

Un jour a Paris.

Yesterday was our day trip to Paris; it was another 4 am wake-up call, but considering where we were going, it wasn't that horrible. We arrived in Paris at the Gare du Nord around 8:50 am, and Kristin and I promptly headed to the Metro (Paris's equivalent to the Tube). Our first stop was Sacre Coeur, the basilica at the top of the hill in the neighborhood of Montmartre. It was so beautiful. And for Janae's benefit, I counted the stairs up to the top: 189. So not too bad of a climb, and the view from the top was worth it. We went down the other side of the hill, and I found the carousel from Amelie. :) The neighborhood was a little sketchy, albeit darling, so we found the Metro again and took it to the center of the city. We went to the Opera House, the Pompidou, the Louvre, Tuilieries Gardens, the Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, took a boat ride on the Seine down to the Eiffel Tower (where I had a delicious crepe), and then back up the river to Notre Dame to end our trip with the most amazing Haagen-Daz ice cream. It made Cold Stone taste like ice chips. For my souvenir I got a cute mug/bowl for soup/hot chocolate/cereal, etc. It's yellow and has little black and white pictures of Paris along the rim. And I took tons of pictures, of course. Here are a few:

The Gare du Nord where we arrived to Paris.

Amelie's neighborhood of Montmartre.

Le Basilisque du Sacre Coeur.

The carousel from Amelie. Very cute!

The famous Opera House and Place de l'Opera.

The main section of the Louvre. In its entirety, the museum is absolutely huge, and could probably house a small country.

Pompidou Centre--the design is really interesting, like an exploded tube and duct factory.
Notre Dame de Paris.

Mine and Kristin's new love...the Eiffel Tower was so cool, especially from the top.

View of the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.

Le piece de resistance: delicious concoction of vanilla and mocha truffle ice cream, toasted almonds (the girl toasted them in front of me), Chantilly cream, dark chocolate sauce, and two little cones. Um, yes.

I loved Paris; it's definitely a very different city from London, as in being edgier and more European. It was nice to come back to London though. Everything was so familiar and it hit me just how sad I'll be to leave. Hope everyone is doing well!

Cotswolds Trip of Life.

So this past Friday and Saturday was our free travel weekend, and my group elected to take an hour and half train ride out to the Cotswolds--the Heart of England. The hostel we stayed in was in a little hilltop town called Stow-on-the-Wold, which was very small and isolated. The first day, Kristin, Kaitlin and I took the bus to Bourton-on-the-Water, which had little low stone bridges over the river. The town was gorgeous and built in the traditional yellow Cotswold limestone.

A bridge in Bourton-on-the-Water.


Me at the gate to begin our tramping. I should have brought Wellies....

After we had our fill of Bourton, we walked the public footpath about 1/4 mile to the even smaller village of Lower Slaughter. We ate delicious handmade ice cream at the old mill before heading out on our 3.5 mile tramp through the English countryside back to Stow.

The church in Lower Slaughter.


The fields were extremely muddy and we had to be set straight on our path by some kind farmers a couple times, but we made it back to our hostel safely, having seen the best part of England there is to see.

That night we ate dinner in a pub called The Queen's Head Inn (bangers and mash and apple crumble for dessert...yum!). I promptly fell asleep the minutes we got back to our room; even Matilda, our 45-year old roommate from Seattle, didn't wake me up when she came in.

The next morning we had a small breakfast at a coffee shop, where I had hot chocolate and a vanilla custard pastry. We wandered around the village after that, and then caught a bus back to Moreton-in-Marsh where we were supposed to catch our train back to London at about 6:20 that night. Alyson and I had a traditional cream tea (herbal, of course), complete with scones and a ploughman's lunch. It was nice to sit and relax and talk for a couple hours, and not have to worry about being somewhere or seeing something. That's one thing I absolutely love about England (and Europe in general, I'm told), is how much time they take for meals--they are really just relaxed and not rushed and meant to be a time to talk and just stop for awhile. I think Americans can definitely take a page out of England's book and just slow down once in a while, especially for meals.

Me at the tea house. Yum!

Anyway, after Alyson and I finished we caught a bus out to Chipping Campden. Our original intention was to see some thatched-roof houses and take in the peaceful atmosphere of yet another sleepy English village. But no. What we found was the village's annual spring/"Olimpick" festival and carnival. Complete with parade and maypole dancing. Even the mayor was there, dressed in all his mayorly regalia. Holy cow! It was amazing. We were so lucky to just happen upon this teeny village's tradition and thought it was cool to have a glimpse into regular English life.

Maypole dance.

We left the village to hoof it back up the hill to the bus stop. The thing is, it never came. About an hour later of somewhat panicked waiting--we were just chilling in the middle of England, so obviously had nothing to complain about--we called a taxi that promptly took us to the Moreton train station. Our train had already left, so we settled in wait for the next one. It came and we soon found ourselves back in London, happy to have had a real adventure in the sequestered rolling hills of the Cotswolds.

Cambridge.

Last Wednesday we took a day trip to the historic college town of Cambridge, which was about a 2 hour bus ride northeast of London. I'm more of an Oxford girl myself, but I found myself liking Cambridge more and more as the day went on. A note on the university system here: Under the overarching umbrella of "Cambridge University" are the separate colleges, which would technically qualify as dinstinct universities in the States. But here, you graduate from Cambridge University, having done your studies at, say, King's or St. John's College. It's a pretty cool system, as is the actual lecture/class time system. They don't actually have to go to any lectures; the students are placed under the tutelage of a single mentor, who suggests readings and lectures he or she should attend, and assigns the student to write an essay on the reading, which will subsequently be torn apart as the student reads it aloud to the mentor the week following. Cool, huh? Talk about actually learning to think and communicate.

Anyway, the day's highlights included seeing a Milton exhibit in the University Library, walking through King's College Chapel, and punting on the Cam. Punting was awesome because the view of the colleges was better from the back than the front, plus most of the Backs were closed to visitors, so it was very subversive and delightful. The atmosphere was pretty heavily academic and awesome and quiet and not at all like the overrun college town I was thinking. Now for the pictures:

King's College Chapel...this is the quintessential Cambridge photo. Or so Talbot tells us.


A view of the King's College quad. Very pretty and very closed to the public right now, as exams are on.


Kristin and I punting down the river Cam.