Life In Technicolor: More London, Oxford, and The London Temple!

Whew, it’s so hard to stay on top of blog posts here! But I promised myself that I would keep track of the things I want to remember from everyday here, so here it goes.

On Monday, our classes started. I was a little worried that they would be an annoyance and waste my time in London, but so far they actually haven’t been that bad. Our professor has decided to be really laid back about it all, and so that creates a great atmosphere in the classroom. Everyone is comfortable commenting and asking questions, and Dr. Elzinga is very open and eager to share his interest in the English Language. So I’ve really enjoyed what we’ve learned so far. Up to now, it’s mostly been review from ELANG 223, but it’s all linguistcal topics that I could use a refresher course on anyway. After class, I branched off from the group with Abbey to see some of the big London museums right by the LDS chapel where we have class.

First, we saw the Victoria and Albert Museum. This has been my favorite museum so far on this trip! There’s an entire exhibit dedicated to women’s fashion from the 1200’s to today. I could have spent so much more time in there reading about and admiring dresses. Unfortunately my camera doesn’t like to work very well in the dark museums, but you get the idea. There were some other cool exhibits in that museum too, dedicated to art, history, etc. After that, we got some lunch at a Crepe Café down the road, where I got a delicious Belgian waffle. Then we headed to the Natural History museum for a bit before returning home for FHE. The Natural History museum was cool, but I think it’s geared more towards kids. I was so hot, exhausted, and ready to go home that I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I could have.

Mr. and Mrs. Darcy?

Some of the first swimsuits--made out of kit material!

I tried on a hoop skirt. Way too complicated.

A very ornate room that I loved

Dinosaur at the Natural History Museum

FHE was great—it turned out that most of the group went to a Jack the Ripper tour at the same time as FHE, so it was just me, Sarah, Bonnie, and the Gardners. The five of us went to explore Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I am in LOVE with these two parks! No wonder I’ve heard that great authors such as Tolkein would go there to walk, ponder, and write. I have decided that I want to go there a lot more while I’m here to enjoy the lake, the trees, and the open air. It’s probably my favorite park I’ve ever been to.

First time on a double decker bus!

Sunset at Hyde Park. My favorite.

Ok, onto Tuesday. We had a day trip to Oxford, England. First we went to the Oxford University Press and had a museum tour there. Our tour guide had a beautiful received pronunciation accent and was great at telling stories and explaining history. I learned that it took 50 years and what would today be billions of pounds to complete the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Why? Because it took a worldwide effort to assemble it. The organization leader (can’t remember his name) had to send people all over the world to ask locals to acquire, define, and trace the etymology of every word in the dictionary. And this was in the 1800’s—think of how many more words there are today! There’s also a first edition of the King James Bible there too which was cool to see.

OUP!

First edition of the King James Bible

An entry from the first Oxford English Dictionary

After that, we went to the Eagle and Child pub where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and other members of the Inklings would meet to discuss their work and other literature. It was a cute old pub that has kept it’s character through the ages—I ordered sausage and mash (-ed potates) for lunch and they were delicious.

Half of our group at the pub

Love this quote.

For the rest of the day, we shopped, looked at old buildings on Oxford University Campus, and then took the train back to London. It was a great day!

Today, we had class this morning and then headed to the London temple for the rest of the day. The temple is actually pretty far out of the city, so it took us about an hour to get there. But the temple is beautiful, and it sits on 34 acres of green beauty. We were able to get our group in to do baptisms, which was such a good experience. The temple has dark furnishings with beautiful countryside paintings inside. I feel that it was a real blessing for us to be able to go. It worked out that everything was free of charge—we had one extra train pass for the group to use, and the temple workers were kind enough to pick us up at the train station. It was a beautiful experience that I’ll always remember.