London Eye, Tea at the Orangery, and museum

Saturday 3/27
Today was fun. A top day! :) Ali and i went to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, which was in a really pretty old building. It was a lot of fun. There were creepy crawlies and birds (I saw a -fake- dodo bird!) and fish and fossils and learned about earthquakes and human biology. The brain is and will always be my favorite! It's just too cool. Maybe that's why I like psychology. Sadly we missed 2 of the big exhibits... Mammals was closed and the dinosuars had a really long line.

Afterwards we walked up through Hyde Park and Kensington Garden (they're connected) to the Orangery, next to Kensington Palace. We had a lovely British afternoon tea there. It was splendid. Our table had a mini orange tree on it, with a tiny shrunken orange.We both ordered a cake and tea (the whole thing- sandwhiches, cakes, biscuits, tea - was way overpriced!). I got Victoria sponge cake and rooibos tea. Both were delicious.

The Posh Life

We walked back to the Centre in pouring rain and then left again for the London Eye! Which I've been excited about for a couple months. We watched a mini-movie beforehand, which wasn't about the Eye but was like a 4-D advertisemet for it. We were there at 6 so we could see the sunset... which wasn't too clear but the view was still amazing and i loved it. It's like a giant ferris wheel in central London, over the Thames and across the river from Big Ben. You feel like you're in a slow-moving bubble over London, and at the top you realize how incredibly massive London is! It didn't end... in any direction. Wow. It was gorgeous too. It had stopped raining and among the gray clouds there were streaks of orange and pink. *sigh... I didn't want it to end. So lovely. The best was when Big Ben lit up. I may have an emotional attachment to that clock haha. It is my favorite place in England!

After our go-around the Eye ended, we wandered the area. There was an adorable carousel and a cute 'candy floss' stand (cotton candy).  i liked the rain puddles :)

We crossed the Jubilee bridge (best view in London) to the other side and walked to Big Ben. everything as lit up and beautiful. We saw CJ there taking pictures, and then the 3 of us went to dinner at Khan's. Top day!
--except for the part where I procrastinated and then stay up all night writing a paper. Got 45 minutes of sleep! :(

Sunday 3/28
Tired (obviously) and felt like a zombie at church... haha i fell asleep on the tube and at church. It was my last day in Whitechapel ward, which was sad. I won't miss having to pay to get to church every week... but i did like my ward. There are some amazing people there. I liked being around different types of church members. It was interesting to hear different stories and experiences. And I will miss the entertainment of being in YW! I went home, napped for 4 hours. Packed for the north trip tomorrow. somehow went to bed at 4 am. :)

Hampton Court & Borough Market (where i ate kangaroo)

Thursday 3/25 - long schoolday - 4 classes, then my Brit Lit class went on a short field trip to Tate Britain (as in I only saw 2 rooms), Ali and i failed to get Billy Elliot tickets again, and McDonald's lunch (the best - sweet chili chicken sandwhich and creme egg mcflurry). Highlights of the day were the mcflurry and that I got to skype my mom and cassidy tonight. Went to bed too late, for the 5th night in a row. Averaging like 3 am. :( Oy.

Friday 3/26

Field trip - we took a train to Hampton Court just outside London. It was pretty and the gardens were nice, but I wasn't really impressed by the court itself. It's big and red-bricked. I must be spoiled by all the amazing places I've seen here, because King Henry VIII's palace was slightly dull to me. Not much to see inside and the court was like a maze so we kept getting lost. Some of it was too cheesy... sound effects in the kitchen and a fat man in court cosume blundering around (King Henry VIII?). The gardens were better, and there was a maze. Highlight was the field of daffodils!

After Hampton Court a group of us left for London and went to Borough Market. Gooood food! That's the whole market. I ate an apple strudel, delicious french chocolate souffle, AND a kangaroo burger. That's right. I tried an exotic meat. This stand that i keep hearing about sells ostrich and kangaroo burgers, and Kalyn and I shared a kangaroo burger. With cranberry sauce! It was fun to try, but the texture of the meat was weird... it tasted rubbery with a funky aftertaste. Well i did have 2 bites of a kangaroo burger! Then i ate the bread and tossed it. I felt a bounce in my step afterwards. :)

We headed back to the Centre but 5 of us got detoured and ended up at Whiteleys (buying chocolate nuts). After dinner (gross, so i ate mostly yogurt and alpen muesli -which i LOVE and eat a few times a week here) I gave up on being productive. I will really miss some people here! Too many here don't go to BYU so who knows if I'll see them again. :( Somehow went to bed after 4 haha. What a tiring week. I'm a nightowl in the 'nightowl room.' It's an accomplishment. ;)

Day Trip 8

Wednesday 3/24
Day Tripper number 8! Our last one. :(
Today we went to St Albans Cathedral and museum, an American WWII Memorial, and Cambridge!

First stop - St. Albans cathedral. I loved it because it has a mismatched achitectural style, very unique. It's been built and rebuilt and added to over the last 1,000 years. Part of it is ancient Roman architecture (faded murals, red stone stripes, simple) and the rest is Gothic architecture (ornate, white, stained glass). Beautiful. I have been feeling a little cathedral-ed out lately (as silly as that sounds..) but I loved St. Albans!

Roman on the left side, Gothic on the right!

Cam and I doing YMCA :)

 The grounds surrounding it were pretty too, overwhelming green and cute ponds. The geese were very friendly.Here's a sad-looking tree wanting a hug. Cam was kind enough to hug it back :)

We spent some time at the nearby Verulamium museum, which is full of artifacts of the ancient Roman civilizaion they found here. Interesting.
Our second stop was an American World War II Memorial. I loved seeing it... and I liked seeing an American flag. I felt patriotic. it was sad though... our tour guide told us sad stories. There were so many white crosses and a huge wall with the names of the missing American soldiers, and a memorial building.

Our last stop was Cambridge! I loved it. It was gorgeous! I loved seeing Oxford, but Cambridge is much more like a small old college town, with beautiful natural scenery. There are lots of fields and gardens and a river bordering the town. I saw guys "punting" - standing on a canoe-like boat and "paddling" it with a long pole. 

We toured King's College chapel, which was amazing. It's about 600 years old, with massive stained glass windows and a high vaulted ceiling.

King's College chapel

sunlight through the stained glass...

A group of us walked to the Fitzwilliam museum - which was cool. It was a hodge-podge of random ancient scultpures and art from pretty much every era, all over the world. I was pleasantly surprised. Highlights were ancient Greek and Egyptian statues, mummies, renaissance art (italian and french), classical Victorian art, even Modern art! There was also a Japanese miniature art gallery and pretty old furniture. :)

Next we went to the Lion Yard Market, which was tiny, but I found a great Cambridge sweatshirt. A group of us spent the rest of the afternoon wandering Cambridge town. It was interesting how a lot of the individual colleges were surrounded by big gates and some even had guards. I couldn't really find any cute Cambridge boys... but apparently their term just ended. I got delicious ice cream and then we coached it back to London.

i love these :)

Went to dinner at TukTuk Thai with CJ, Rachel, Jake, and Ali. Yum. The Ali and I went into every single souvenir shop on Queensway! haha that's like 10 stores. We were looking for some things... couldn't find everything but I did get Princess Diana-themed presents for my mom :)

-- And I got to skype with cassidy tonight! love ya girl xox

Portobello road, Wicked, etc

Friday 3/19 - dull day... had classes. lunch at Pret, finally did some homework, organized pictures on my lap top, and watched Wuthering Heights (for Brit Lit class). Sad movie.

Saturday 3/20
I slept in, went to Portobello Road Market (my favorite market!) and went a bit crazy... I got a chocolate/strawberry crepe, churros and chocolate, hot chocolate, olive ciabatta bread, and a chicken paella dish. I think that was lunch? And then I bought gifts for people (and myself!).. posters and cool jewelry and a great antique pin with a matador and bull on it. I LOVE Portobello! I still think of the movie Notting Hill every time I'm there. :) It's a pretty, rainy, almost-spring day today.
Afterwards i had planned on being productive but i fell asleep in the parlour, then did homework (blah).

The fabulous Portobello Road!  (before the rain..)

Sunday 3/21
Church was entertaining today :) In sunday school an old guy talked about the time he got arrested for not paying traffic fines, and how he hated missing work. Not something i usually hear in my wards at home. Then in Young Womens (we were talking about peacemaking and love at home), the girl with anger issues ranted and said that sometimes she gets so mad at her mom she punches dents in the wall and throws things. She scares me a little. :) The girls in my Whitechapel ward are great though, and very funny. Afterwards... I skyped family, dinner, etc.

Monday 3/22
Classes, then the whole program went to Wigmore Hall to see violinist Janine Jensen (and a pianist) in concert. It was nice (my first violin concert) and I used to play the violin, so i really liked the music. Unfortunately... I was so tired that i may have fallen asleep for a few minutes during the concert.. :) How embarrassing. Haha well actually a few students fell asleep too. The violinist was entertaining... she moved very enthusiastically. It was a nice concert.

Afterwards - lunch at Pret, then I bought 2 Ben's cookies (overrated cake-like cookies), and candy bars. Have I menioned I really love British candy?! Ali and i headed over to Victoria station to get Billy Elliot tickets, but they're weren't any good cheap seats. We went across the street to where Wicked is playing and on a whim bought tickets to see it tonight! I love how randomly that works out. After dinner we saw Wicked, it was fun and the music was as great as I remembered (I saw it in LA 5 years ago).

Oh and! I got a care package from my family today! My first :) It was so fun -  I got 2 boxes of thin mint cookies (everybody is very jealous. I'm using sharing to my advantage haha) and newspaper clippings and other wonderful things. I love you guys!!

Tuesday 3/23
Classes, then Ali and I went over to Shannon Ashton's house for help with planning our backpacking trip! She's been everywhere and was so helpful. Mmm and we had delicious chocolate fondue! Yum. Well Ali and I finally have a solid itinerary !! It's so exciting. We are backpacking through...

• Lisbon
• Madrid
• Barcelona
• Rome
• Florence
• Siena
• Munich (including..)
• Neuschwanstein castle
• Dachau concentration camp
• Salzburg
• Vienna
• Prague (for my 20th birthday!)
• Berlin
• Amsterdam
• Bruges
• Brussels

...then back to London then back home to America! 27 days of backpacking Europe!! Yay for fulfilling life dreams :) :) :)

Paris! day 4

Thursday 3/18
Happy Birthday mom!!! i love you so so much. You are amazing. Someday we will travel Europe together!
Last day in Paris... we had to ourselves, at least until 5 pm. Ali and I went to the Rue Mouffetard market because a few girls had recommended it, but it was a bust... it was just like any random cute street in Paris, with shops and food. Haha we went into 3 chocolate shops on the street or nearby - I bought chocolate from Nicolsens and Leonidas (amazing). We were looking for Berthilions ice cream and asked directions from a policeman (weird, I do that in Europe sometimes but I never would at home) and then got better directions from very friendly people at a local pharmacy.

We went to the original Berthilions ice cream shop on Isle du St. Louis, near Notre Dame. We were confused because we thought that was the place that made ice cream look like a flower... but when I asked, the ice cream shopowner was confused... apparently that's a different ice cream shop nearby that we never found. But we got ice cream there anyway... and I can honestly say that it was THE BEST ICE CREAM I have ever devoured. Simple, just a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate, but it was so creamy and rich and perfect! It was amazing... we ate our ice cream on a bridge over the Seine, in Paris. Even though it was freezing cold it was fabulous. Haha i love eating ice cream while wearing mittens.

Next we went to the LOUVRE! I was very excited. It is the grand museum of Paris... the only bad thing was that we didn't have enought time to really enjoy it and see everything. We rushed through most of the areas but we did see most of the sections, and we were there about 3 and a half hours. It is massive! The glass pyramid is awesome.

I saw the Mona Lisa (surprisigly small, and surrounded by a mass of people), the Venus de Milo, and lots of famous paintings and scultpures. Plenty of Greek sculptures, Egyptian mummy collection... some massive paintings, works by Botticelli, Delacroix, da Vinci, Rubens, etc. and so much more! I loved seeing paintings that I've studied the past few years (especially from AP European History). I also really liked a beautiful "Psyche and Cupid" sculpture (my favorite myth. I'm in a Mythology class here). The Louvre was a bit of sensory overload but it wasn't too overwhelming beacuse everything is spread out. I could spend hours and hours more there. The only annoying thing was that all the captions are in French! I loved the Louvre building itself; not only is it filled with amazing art, but the walls and ceilings are all decorated and beautiful! The Louvre is one of my favorite museums ever. 

 venus de milo

psyche and cupid

crowding around little mona lisa

the Mona Lisa!

weird statue :)

After the Louvre we crossed a bridge to one of Paris' other great museums - the Musee d'Orsay. It was pretty great too. It was built out of an old train station and it was a compact, kind of small museum but it was packed with amazing art. We didn't have time to see everything... but i did see paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, and Renoir. Couldn't take pictures inside the museum, but here is one i saw and liked... Van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhone.

We had to head back to the hotel afterwards... :( If i had more time in Paris i would see... the Picasso Museum, the Rodin Museum, Sacre Coeur and Montmarte, the Musee de l'Orangerie, and Monet's gardens! I'll just have to return someday then. :)

Here's a "mini arc" next to the Louvre

We headed back to the hotel to get our bags and meet up to go to the train station. I ate french bread, crepe, and the Duplo chocolates :) I will miss French food! Perfect snacks. Took the Chunnel back to London thursday evening. So exhausted... this trip was all go-go-go! But i did see a lot.

I loved Paris! The museums and food and buildings and eiffel tower and the city itself was great, and the people were friendly and nice. They didn't even laugh (in front of me) when i butchered their language or accidently reverted to Spanish haha (i said "si" a few times.. whoops).  :)

Je t'aime Paris! <3