Saying Goodbye to England.

{Warning...This is a really long post. Read at your own risk.}

I’m beginning to find myself getting tired of taking pictures, putting them on Facebook, blogging, and adding pictures to posts. I guess that’s what happens when you get to week 5. Also, I bought a really cool journal at Jane Austen’s house and I’ve been writing in there, so that means I haven’t blogged as much. But, we’re leaving England tomorrow, so I feel like I need to catch up now before I forget everything once we get to Scotland. Here we go:

Westminster Evening Prayer & Tour

After getting home from doing family history things at the National Archives for my mom, I hurried back to meet up with Sarah and Bonnie to go to evensong at Westminster Abbey. You have to understand that up until this point, I hadn’t been inside and I had been trying to talk people into paying to do the tour with me inside, and not just going for the free evensong. Everyone, eventually including myself, decided not to go. Until we finished attending the free evening prayer service there that night. They went to a jazz night, which I had zero interest in, so on a whim, I decided to do a tour on my own. And I’m so glad that I did. Every inch of that abbey is covered in history. There are graves and memorials everywhere. In the back of the abbey, there is a memorial to the fallen air force soldiers of WW2. There’s stained glass of the soldiers with angels and it is beautiful. There’s also a big book with all the names of fallen air force soldiers from all over the world. It is beautiful. Especially because it is in a sight where a bomb minorly hit the abbey during the war. My favorite part was when I was standing in the coronation area at the very front of the chapel. The audio guide comes on and says, “You are currently standing in the exact spot where the last 32 monarchs have been crowned. Many of them have also had weddings and funerals here as well.” That gave me chills! And then poet’s corner was also really cool. The most notable memorial graves (at least for me) were Shakespeare, Handel, Chaucer, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, William Tyndale, and Winston Churchill. It wasn’t quite what I expected (smaller) but it was still pretty amazing.

Can you spot me?

Across the street from Westminster...we found this gem of a photo opp. :)

St. James’ Park & Buckingham Palace

After I left the abbey, I had time left to burn and I was by myself. So I got to do exactly what I wanted…I didn’t have to wait for another person to be done, I didn’t have to compromise what I wanted to do for someone else, and I didn’t have to go home because someone was tired. So, I was pretty excited. I saw signs for Buckingham Palace (I hadn’t been yet, and somehow everyone else had) and so I just wandered through St. James’ Park until I eventually reached Buckingham Palace. It is massive! And there were news crews everywhere because it was the night that the name of the royal baby was announced. It was really cool to be there for that moment and watch and hear people’s conversations and their reactions to the name of the baby. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

After finishing up at Buckingham Palace, I walked back down the Princess Diana Memorial Walkway in St. James Park. I paused to meditate on a little wooden bench under a massive tree and experienced a moment of complete happiness. Happy to be me, happy to be alive, happy to be in London! It was so wonderful and I left completely content. 

I had to ask another tourist to take my pic...not my favorite because you can't see the whole palace, but you get the idea. 

Roman Baths

The Roman Baths were really interesting. I didn’t realize that Britain was once occupied by Romans before the Anglo-Saxons arrived here. These baths are ancient and yet there is still water coming up from the earth in the same pools they have for the last 1000+ years. The water is absolutely disgusting—they don’t even let people touch it because it is so algae and disease filled. However, at the end of the tour, there is a spot where you can partake of clean water from the spring. It wasn’t very good, but I still can say that I partook of the waters in Bath! Just like all of my favorite Jane Austen heroines.

Bonnie and I partaking of the waters at Bath

Salisbury

Really, the only cool thing about Salisbury is the cathedral. The city is cool, but the cathedral is really awesome. We had a great tour guide who taught us a lot about the history of the cathedral. It’s bad, but I can’t remember all of the details because we’ve been to so many cathedrals and churches in the last week. The hostel we stayed in here was completely sketch. Our bedroom had wet carpet from the leaking sink in the corner, the beds felt like they were made of straw, and the bathrooms smelled like there were 1000’s of years of poop stacked up in the plumbing lines. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but it really was so gross. So glad we only slept there for one night. One of my favorite things about Salisbury is that Sarah and Bonnie and I had some really great girl talk while all of the other girls were gone and we were kicking it at the hostel. Embarrassing stories, kiss stories, dating stories, the works. It was marvelous and it made me love these girls even more. Bonnie gets married a few weeks after we’re home and so we love talking wedding, engagement, and fiancé stuff with her. 

Stonehenge

Stonehenge was really cool! Kind of underwhelming because it’s smaller than I imagined. And we got in for free with an educational discount, so we didn’t hear any of the tour information or history. But it was still really cool to see it in person and to be able to say that I’ve been there. That’s about all I have to say about Stonehenge.

Mah gurlz

Our whole group!

London roomiez

Jane Austen’s House

This was probably one of my very favorite parts of this entire trip. I grew up loving the Jane Austen stories—following the example of my mother and sisters—and so seeing her house in person was completely wonderful. It is a beautifully quaint cottage and looks exactly as it should. Jane moved around in her lifetime, but it was in this cottage that she wrote and published her most famous works. We got to try on 18^th century dresses and bonnets, play a replica of her piano, see her original works, see her writing desk, her dresses, even a preserved lock of her hair. I felt really close to her and the history of her life while I was there. She really did have a rough, poor life, but it was writing that made her the most happy. I guess that’s what I love about her story though—she found what made her happy and she immersed herself in it. To the point that she became one of the greatest authors in the English Language. It inspired me not only to read more of her novels, but also to try to find my kind of happy and to spend more time there. I was on cloud 9 while I was here and I was the last one back on the bus because I loved it so much. There is a beautiful garden outside of her house with flowers that I’ve never seen before but I really loved. All in all, the house was exactly as it should be and one of my favorite stops on this whole trip.

The dead grass is evidence of how HOT this summer has been for England. 

I'm too tall. All the dresses wouldn't cover my feet. :/

Aren't we lovely?

How do I look?

Playing Jane's piano

Writing table

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Baker Street

            When we got back from our day trip, Sarah and I headed over to the National Gallery museum in London. We only spent a brief amount of time there—enough to see the famous Van Gogh and Monet paintings, as well as a few others. Then we headed out to Trafalgar Square—where there are tons of street performers, musicians, and crowds of people. It’s a bustling spot, but it’s a fun place to experience London. We also visited 221B Baker Street, home of Sherlock Holmes (my grandpa, duh). 

In the Tube!

Trafalgar Square

National Gallery

My home!

Stratford On Avon

The next day, we headed to Stratford on Avon to get a feel of the Shakespeare life. It was a smaller group of us that went—not everyone wanted to go. We saw Shakespeare’s birthplace, Nash’s House (his daughter’s house), and the site where his house once stood. We also attended a play—All’s Well that Ends Well. It was a modern Shakespeare adaptation, and so I struggled to really appreciate it. I don’t love those modern adaptations. But it was still decent.

Nash's House

Shakespeare's Grave

The church where he's buried

In the garden where his house once stood

Isn't it gorgeous?

Literally the spot where he entered this world

Outside Shakespeare's house

Khan’s

Khan’s in downtown London has the most delicious Indian food I’ve ever had. I got butter chicken, rice, garlic naan, and freshly squeezed lemonade. Our program paid for the dinner, which made it even better. I completely stuffed my face, but it was so good! It inspired me to learn how to make better Indian food!

My cute lemonade

It started raining for the first time on our trip...and this was the only umbrella I had!

Church

One of my favorite things about London has been going to church in my ward. They split up everyone in our program up so that we don’t overwhelm one ward. So, I’ve been attending the Lea Valley ward with Becca. The ward is the most welcoming ward I’ve ever been to! Everyone there is always excited to meet us, see us, and talk to us. I’ve never been somewhere where I felt so loved and accepted instantly. There’s an older lady named Emma there who took us under her wing and loved us from the first Sunday. She said, “You BYU kids and the missionaries too are my children. I love you like my own.” She is an immigrant from Ghana and she was the first member of the ward when she joined the church in 1987 with her family. Her family is all inactive now, but she is as faithful as ever. Everyone in the ward, including the bishop, calls her “grandma”. She brought us dinner last week, and this Sunday she gave us “munch munch”es for the ride home. We exchanged addresses with her so that we can keep in touch. When we were leaving, we were thanking her for the food she had given us and she just sad, “Well that’s what grandmas do for their grandchildren—they love them and feed them!” I started tearing up when she said this and I was just so happy to have met this incredible lady.

We spent the last few weeks there working in the primary, and I actually got really attached to the kids. They are absolutely insane and loud, but they are so full of life and happiness. Teaching them and helping them understand the gospel was such a fun experience. There’s a little girl there named Rosie. She’s crazy. She’d look up my skirt, down my shirt, and tug at my hair, but she’s a beautiful and fun little girl.  The other day, she climbed up on my lap and started fixing my hair, and she was like, “Why is your hair so soft? Why isn’t my hair like that?” She’s adorable. The other kids are great too, but I probably got to know Rosie the best. I was so sad to say goodbye to all of them!

Becca has the pictures from this part. I'll have to get them later!

Museum of London

After church, I did some exploring on my own. I went to the Museum of London—a museum that tells London’s story from when people didn’t exist here yet, to the 2012 Olympics, and everything in between. Everything in between includes the great fire, the great famine, the wars, etc. It’s a very modern museum with lots of videos and hands on exhibits, so it quickly became one of my very favorite museums in London.

Postman’s Park

This is a really cool park outside of the museum that was founded in the late 1800’s. There is a wall of plaques that tell the stories of men and women who lost their lives while trying to save someone else. It is so humbling to read each of their stories! And the park gardens are beautiful too.

St. Paul’s Cathedral Evensong

StSt. Paul’s Cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in London. It burnt down in the great fire in the 1600’s, but it was rebuilt later and it is absolutely incredible. I attended the free evensong service and I loved it. It’s always different to experience these services, but eye opening as well. One thing I noticed was how much they talk about and have us recite what sinful and dead creatures we are. They talk about how distanced we are from Christ. There is always talk of redemption to follow, but it feels much more harsh to me than our religion. The architecture of the building is absolutely incredible—gold painted ceilings, statues, and fancy floors. I think it’s the most expensive looking cathedral I’ve seen here and I loved it.

Fireside

We had a fireside that night with George Chinook, a man who lived in London during the blitz of World War 2. He was a child, and he was sent to the countryside for part of the war, but he still remembers many of the horrors of it. He talked about how London was completely overcome during the war—something I didn’t ever know or realize previously. He said that in the daytime there would be constant planes flying over the city—to the point you couldn’t hear anything. And at night, the bombs would drop for about 12 hours straight. Londoners lived in constant fear of being hit by bombs. I loved hearing him talk about the war, so I was sad when he had to end early.

I have no pics from the fireside, but here's one from right before. I met up briefly with some of my favorite Provo girls, Alicia and Emily Crowder. :)

York

Here we are—spending our last few hours in England. We took a train through the countryside to get here. I love these moments—where I can sit on the train, read my book, snack on chocolate, and look out the window at the green fields of England. It is so beautiful! We finally arrived in York. I didn’t think I would like it because it seemed like a dumpy city on first impression, but I have actually loved it. There are so many old shops and markets here, as well as the ancient Minster cathedral, and lots of history. While we’ve been here, we attended evensong in the Minster, walked along the city wall, done a ghost walking tour (apparently York is the most haunted town in England), done a real walking tour through the city, attended the York Courts (just a criminal case in the Georgian court…they wore wigs and all), done lots of shopping, and eaten at cute pub called the “Hole in the Wall” (it’s literally a hole in the city wall). That was a really long sentence. But it’s late and I’m so sick of writing so that’s what you get.

Oh, and they happened to be filming a new movie right by the Minster. It's called "Death Comes to Pemberly". It's a Pride and Prejudice spinoff/ sequel. I don't know anything else about it, but it was cool to be there while they're filming it!

The spot where they're filming the Pride & Prejudice spinoff

The Minster

Can you find me?

Asian tourists and a street performer

Snapdragons!

England is amazing. It’s all I expected my whole life and even more. I always knew I loved British culture, but I do now even more than ever before. I’m so happy here and I could be content staying here for the rest of my life (if my family moved here). I’m so sad to leave England, but we’re onto Scotland, so how can I really be sad? Here’s to one last week of adventures!