Day 23: Olympic Walk

Today in class we studied William Wordsworth.  His poetry is transcendent and inspires me, even to the depths of my soul.  I know they have many truths in them as they describe both our human experience and the feelings of our spirits.  I'm excited to go up to the Lake District next week and see the sights that he lived in.


I will probably disappoint you with pictures today because I accidentally left my memory card at the Centre.  I took pictures but I will have to download them with a special cord that is in Utah- sorry!


We did an Olympic walk through East London today.  East London has usually been the poorest area of the city- the "slums" of London.  Having the Olympics take place there is part of an urban renewal process.  I don't know how well it will work but it was cool to see a lot of the sites.  East London is still kind of run down but you can tell they are trying to build it up.  Our tour guide was showing us around the area where they're going to put one of the Olympic protective missiles on top of a building.  A funny moment of the day occurred when he pointed out the Porsche car sales lot here.  He said, "You may be wondering why this luxury car lot is in the slums of London.  Well- drug dealers need cars too."  We all got a good laugh out of that one!


We saw the outside of the main stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies, the torch/tower thing, the pools, the apartment village where the athletes will live, and the large shopping center built all around the entrance to the games.  It was a really fun atmosphere!  It will be especially fun when the games start and I can connect with the things we saw.  


I went on a jog through the other side of Hyde Park today.  It felt more like Central Park on that side with all of the businesses surrounding it.  On the positive side, I got to see a lot!  I saw at least 6 pick up soccer games, the 7/7 terrorist attack memorial, 3 World War I memorials, 3 couples making out, 100+ runners in a race, 7 roller bladers, 4 skate boarders, too many pigeons, lots of squirrels and dogs.  


Now I have a LOT of homework to try and get done so I can have fun this weekend and stay caught up before my trip to the north next week!  I hope everyone has a happy Thursday. :)

Day 22: Call me Elizabeth B.- No, E. Bennet

Today was the BEST day!  I know I keep saying that but really.... today was another dream come true.  It started out with an early trip to Jane Austen's house!  We saw the church in Chowton (pronounced cha-ton) that she worshipped in weekly and the house that she lived in during the time that all of her novels were published.  It was magical.  All inside the house there are facts about her life and quotes from famous people about her and her novels.  I loved reading everything I could about her!

How could I go to Jane Austen's house without buying one of her novels?  I bought three!  I already own most of them but I didn't own Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park so I bought those and also a compliation of three books including Lady Susan, The Watsons, and the unfinished Sandition.  I am girly enough that I bought a bookmark with a quote from Mr. Darcy with a heart that says "I love Mr. Darcy" with Colin Firth's picture on it.  I love it! :)

(Kayley and I with our purchases)

(Me happy with my sweet bookmark!)

Our next stop was a beautiful place.  Possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  It's definitely my most favorite garden I have ever seen.  It's called the Stourhead Gardens.  Have you heard of it?  Maybe you haven't but if you've seen the newest Pride and Prejudice movie you will recognize these scenes...

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” 

"I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry."

And then this moment in the movie.... AHHH!  I think I mentioned that a big group of us girls watched this movie last night and basically all FREAKED OUT at this part!  It is my favorite part of any movie. (Interesting fact I learned today- the Pride and Prejudice crew was at Stourhead for a week only to shoot this scene.  It rained every day of the week they were there EXCEPT for the day they filmed.  Ironic- right?)  So you can imagine how excited I was to see the exact spot where this happened.  What I didn't realize was the significance of Stourhead Gardens as well.  It is drastically different from the other gardens I've seen at Hampton Court and Versailles.  These were highly uniform and perfectly manicured.  During the 18th century, the thought in literature and art was shifting towards the picturesque, sublime, dark, shadow, and irregularity.  This was during the Enlightenment period and is shown at Stourhead Gardens because it is manicured but made to specifically look unmanicured, like wilderness, and like a place a hermit could live.  It has been described as "a living work of art where all is grand or simple, or a beautiful mixture of both."  I got that majestic feeling when I was there.  My friend Seth would appreciate all of the different variety of plants they had there (I think over 600 different types of trees?) and the ways in which they were used. 

On the coach ride to Stourhead, I was reading some of Wordsworth's poetry for an assignment.  He wrote during this time period and is HUGE into nature.  In one of his works, Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, he wrote something that applied to how I felt at the gardens:

"Knowing that Nature never did betrayThe heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,Through all the years of this our life, to leadFrom joy to joy:  for she can so inform The mind within us, so impressWith lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor allThe dreary intercourse of daily life,Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturbOur cheerful faith, that all which we beholdIs full of blessings."

Isn't that beautiful?  Now here are the pictures I took!  I put quite a few one here but not all the 135 that I took.  Pictures can't capture the serenity that I experienced her, nor the elation I felt at the Temple of Apollo (where the Pride and Prejudice scene was filmed) but I hope you can taste a drop of what it felt like to me.  You should listen to THIS song while you look at these pictures:

(Myself and Katherine- I'm really enjoying becoming friends with her!)

(Views from the Temple of Apollo)

(Cree from our group acting as Mr. Darcy and me acting as Elizabeth Bennet- Do you think I could play the part?)

(Pictures from our walk around the lake there)

(Some caramel, chocolate, shortbread that Amanda and I got at a little farmhouse country store at Stourhead.  So yummy!)

We took a trip to Bath afterwards, named for the Roman baths that we built there during the time the Romans ruled England.  Jane Austen lived her for a large part of her life and hated it.  A few of her novels, including Persuasion take place here.  We saw the actual baths and tried the bath water there.  It was very mineral-ish.  We also were supposed to see the Royal Crescent (a famous apartment building) but we accidentally saw the Royal Circle (an easy mistake to make) instead.  We ate at an Irish Pub for dinner and the guy asked us for our ID cards.  We were just this little American girls there looking for cheap food and I didn't really understand him because he was Irish... a little awkward.  Like he asked if I wanted "Ace."  I didn't know what that was so I just shook my head yes.  I had already asked him "what" so many times that I didn't want to ask again.  It turns out that ace= ice.  Ha.

Can you tell that I LOVED today?  I love the city of London and I grow to love the countryside and country towns more and more each time I visit them!  

Day 21: Austen and Art

Today was the best day of class EVER!  I'm a girl... I'm most often a girly girl... so it should not come as a surprise that I enjoy reading Jane Austen's novels.  I own most of them.  My English professor, Nick Mason, is BYU's "expert" on Jane Austen and so we got to talk about her for three hours this morning.  It was awesome!  But first, we got a crash course in art history which I greatly appreciated.  I find I appreciate what I have seen more because I have learned more about it.  I have seen some of the greatest art pieces in the world and I'm so grateful for that!


So back to Jane Austen... we had an assignment to read Sense and Sensibility (*darn) and then we talked about it in class.  We talked about the paradigm that surround Jane Austen and her novels.  Ever since 1995-ish when Hollywood picked up her works and turned them into movies, her popularity has grown.  People often picture her as an Elinor type and as a very whimsical and romantic lady herself.  In fact, she was more of a Marianne type (making jokes about still-born children and such).  A woman who knew her well called her "the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband hunting butterfly ever."  She was quite popular during the time she wrote.  The regent King, George IV, and his daughter both read her books.  


In our day, as we talked about in class, many people have extreme opinions about Jane Austen.  It seems housewives and young girls everywhere have an obsession with the Austen phenomenon and everyone else hates and avoids her. Dr. Mason told us a story about one of his students who was getting married and started moving her fiance's things to their new apartment.  Among his things, she found the six hour BBC version of Pride and Prejudice the movie.  She asked him about it and his response was, "If you tell my friends about this the wedding is off."  So why do people have these opinions and are they necessary?  No one is ashamed of reading Milton or Dickens and Austen is a brilliant writer of her time and still today.  She essentially invited free indirect discussion which almost all novelists after her continue to use.  Every book she produced was a phenomenon.


She came from a very intelligent and scholarly family as the youngest of 6 girls and one boy.  Something I really liked learning about her is that she was proposed to at the age of 28 by one of her friends brothers.  Age 27 was usually the time a young woman was considered a "spinster" and so she accepted this proposal.   That night she could not sleep and really did not feel good about it.  The next morning she declined the proposal, knowing that if she did she would remain single for the rest of her life.  She decided she'd rather be single than settle.  There are lessons to be learned from that!


Are you sick of learning about Jane Austen now?  I will tell you about my day now which is probably why you read this blog...


So we had an amazing class and then I went to the National Gallery.  It is one of the four or five great art museums in London.  The Gallery is located in Trafalgar Square, a major site that I just had to see!  In it is the countdown to the London Olympics this summer.  It is only 73 days away if you're counting.  

(myself, Whitney, Alisa, Kaylie, and Lauren Fine)

The National Gallery was aboslutely beautiful.  NO pictures are allowed inside but I saw many works by artists from the 1300's until the 1900's.  My most favorite piece that really moved me was Monet's The Thames at Westminster.  This is what it looks like...

I can FEEL what Monet must have felt when he looked over the Thames river early in the morning and saw Parliament in the background.  I wanted to buy the large poster of this painting but I didn't know what I would do with it so I bought the postcard of it instead.  The entire museum was great and possibly one of my favorites that I have been to.  I also went to get a shake from Fenton's ice cream after.  I need to remember that I mixed chocolate brownie and caramel and that I loved it.

Right now we are having a Jane Austen party!  Many of us girls and a couple of the boys are watching Sense and Sensibility the movie and then we're going to watch the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice.  WOO HOO!  I'm so happy right now.  We're going to Bath, Jane Austen's home, and Stourhead Gardens tomorrow.  I CAN'T WATI!  I might try to do homework tonight... or just do it on the coach tomorrow... or not at all.  Who knows? :)  All I know is I love studying about Jane Austen and the themes she wrote about.

Day 20: Moving Plans

I've decided that I'm moving to London.  I hope everyone is okay with me never coming home because I'm going to stay here forever!  I LOVE it.  I even found where I want to live.  Today I went on a walk through South Kensington and found my future neighborhood.  It is lovely!  It's across Hyde Park, south of where I live.  This area contains the Hyde Park chapel (recently renovated), Exhibition Road, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, a nice shopping area, and the style of homes are what I pictured London to be like.  It is truly a pleasure to walk through.

(Hyde Park Chapel)

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

(Exhibition Road- will be a major site for the Olympics and will be a pedestrian zone during that time)

After my walk, I had to help set up dinner because I'm the leader of dish crew.  This limits my time this week but it's the price I pay to get a yummy homemade meal each week so I won't complain!


At night we went to a play about the English translation of the bible called Written on the Heart.  This is a fairly new play in London but it had pretty good reviews.  Our entire group went.  It featured William Tyndale and a group of bishops at Hampton Court conference working on the compilation of the King James Bible.  The subject was interesting to me but I had a hard time following the play.  There was really no plot or action, not even a large conflict to move the plot forward.  The characters were never really developed and the play was three hours long.  Too long in my opinion.  I will say that it made me appreciate the Bible a lot more.  Many people died as martyrs, livelihoods were dedicated, and much time were all put into making sure the bible was as correct as possible (although politics was definitely involved) and making sure the common people could read it.  I wouldn't recommend the play but it was interesting to see.

(Do you know the Muffin Man?)

I can't believe that as of today, I have less than one month in London!  It's sad to think about (because I'm not really moving here... right now) so I won't dwell on it.  I'll just enjoy every second left of my trip! :)

Day 19: Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to the most amazing mom in the world!  

It is not technically mother's day over here in the UK.  They have their mother's day in March but everyone here at the BYU Centre is still celebrating today!  Everyone has been skyping home to talk to their families and I can't wait to talk to mine tonight.  It was a little weird going to church today and not hearing the mother's day talks and musical numbers but it was still good.

I love my mom so much!  She is always so sweet to everyone around her.  She is supportive of my dreams and pushes me to be my best.  I know that I can always talk to her because she is such a wonderful listener.  I love spending time with her and also hearing her opinions about things.  She is so beautiful in every way.  I hope I can grow up to be a mom like her!  

I love you mom!
(I love my Nana and Grandma so much too- happy mother's day to both of you!)