Canterbury Trip!

Thursday we don't have classes and this week we had a day trip planned with the whole group. We left at 8 am and headed to Canterbury, which is about a two hour drive outside of the city. The city is known historically for being the destination point of religious pilgrimages to worship at the Canterbury Cathedral. We arrived around ten am and made it for our tour of the cathedral at ten thirty. I am loving all of these tours we are taking because they are mostly done by older people, usually cute little grandpas that LOVE what they are teaching us about. This time we got an adorable old man that was so excited about the Canterbury Cathedral. He told us a bunch of very interesting stories and also a lot of random facts. We were loving it until an hour into it when we were still only half way through and starving. Another hour later he was still going, bless his heart, and we were all sneaking bites of our lunches. I will say that I learned a lot and really appreciated his great tour, it just dragged on for a little longer than expected. The cathedral was BEAUTIFUL. The architecture was amazing and the stain glass windows were so colorful! After we finished our tour we headed out to eat our lunch and walk around the town. It was a very fun place to be with many cool shops and street performers. It was mostly made up of cobblestone streets so that was fun to walk around and see.
Once we had finished lunch we met up with the group again to go through a museum type place called "Canterbury Tales". You had a little listening device and a man told stories as you moved from one room to the next. The rooms were really creepy though and had mannequins dressed up as beggars in them. The stories actually ended up being a little racy with some dirty jokes and I was in a group of 7 with the professors four boys and two other girls. One of the boys is a brand new return missionary (he joined us last week from his mission) and another is 11. Luckily the 11 year old got a tape that was "child friendly" but I kept checking to see what his was saying. The oldest child thing makes me watch out for the little kids more I guess and this little boy reminds me so much of Dawson haha I love it. When we came out the professor and his wife were looking a little shell shocked haha you never know what you are getting into, even at a "museum". It did give us all something to laugh at though! After our great little tour we walked around town some more then headed home.
We had to hurry and get ready so that we could be out the door for the Harry Potter midnight showing by 7:30, we went to the 9pm showing of HP7 part 1 that was included. Wow, we are really sounding like nerds! It was great though and the movie was amazing! It was a great ending to my favorite books. I remember starting to read those when I was 11 (same age as Harry in book one) I can't believe that was so long ago! I will say the Epilogue was a smidge cheesy with Harry's salt and pepper hair and Rons big belly. But, all in all it was a fabulous movie and the midnight showings are always the best. We finished the movie around 2:30 am and were all the way out at a theater near Wimbeldon. Thanks to some great googling and navigating skills Catie and I were able to get us home via the night bus, we were pretty proud of ourselves. We didn't end up getting home until 4 am though and were up again at 7. It has been a LONG day.
Enjoy the pictures!

Shop 'til we drop!

An update, sorry I am getting so behind on these!! On Wednesday we had class and then nothing planned the entire afternoon. We decided to take this opportunity to go check out the markets that are famous here in London. We went to Portobello market and Camden market. Portobello market was fun but not very busy because it is apparently the busiest on Saturday. I did however find a very cute purse that I have been searching for since I passed one up like it in Bath. I also had a delicious belgian waffle from a little stand! After Portobello we headed to Camden. Camden market was CRAZY. It was like being in New York City with all of the guys bartering with you and asking what price you wanted to pay. Lucky for me I have a mom that is the NUMBER ONE barterer (is that a word?). She has taught me well and I was able to talk them down to the price I wanted. We had fun exploring that for a few hours then headed home. It was a great day! I am also getting very good at getting around on the tube. I am able to navigate to basically anywhere and not look like a complete tourist lost in the city. Yay!
I have some pictures of the market, me looking extremely excited about that belgian waffle (I was hungry okay?!), and my adorable purse! Woo woo! Can I just stay here forever?

Terrific Tuesday!

Okay, so I am running out of cool post titles. I am just not creative enough for this blogging stuff. But today is Tuesday and it was terrific so that's all I've got. We started out the morning with classes again then ran home and switched our backpacks for our purses because hauling all of our stuff around yesterday turned out to be a pain. Apparently people aren't big fans of backpacks in their faces on the tube. We ate a quick lunch at our flats then ran to meet up with the professors at the Globe theater. We were supposed to have group tickets to see "Much Ado about Nothing" but, the BYU booking agent "forgot" to tell us when she went to book them 6 months ago they were sold out. We did get to see it and take some pretty cool pictures out front AND on the way there we crossed the Millennium Bridge which is apparently in Harry Potter 6, you know when they are fighting on a crazy twisted bridge? We took some pictures on there then decided to head over to Westminster Abbey, where Will and Kate were married!! It was AMAZING. First, when we got off the tube exit we came right out by Big Ben. That is one big clock and it is so beautiful. We took a lot of pictures and walk around outside of it (him?). When we got to Westminster we took an audio tour around it, which I would very STRONGLY suggest. It was so interesting to learn about all of the different Queens and Kings that influenced certain chapels inside or that were buried in tombs in Westminster. And of course, seeing the aisle Kate walked down was very cool too. I just loved every second of it. We spent a good two hours there "oohing" and "awing". After that we decided to grab some dinner before our show that night. We went to Hard Rock Cafe because so many people in our group suggested it. It was very tasty and had free refills, which I am ALWAYS a fan of. After dinner we went to Les Miserables. Our tickets that were supposed to be "obstructed view" were perfect! They were on the front row of the balcony and we could lean forward a little and see everything. I still can't believe we got those for only 15 pounds. The show was so amazing!! That was my first time ever seeing it and I loved every second of it. I cried at least twice and clapped so loud. The man that played Jean Valjean was one of the best singers I have ever hear. After one of his solos the crowd clapped for a good three minutes. It was so great! I am sure that will not be my last time seeing it either. I LOVED it.
Well here are some pictures!

Tower de London

I am getting behind on my blogging, sorry you great followers. Yesterday was Monday, right? Okay yes. So Monday morning we had classes, they go from 9-12 at the Hyde Park chapel and they are fabulous! Our professors are just the greatest and I really feel like I am learning so much. It is fun to be able to discuss all of the different accents and the many differences in the dialects we hear then go out and experience them first hand. We all packed up our backpacks with lunches because we left right after class for a little field trip to the Tower of London. It was fun being back with the whole group again! We walked around the Tower of London for about an hour and a half. It is more like a castle than just a tower. My most favorite part was the Crown Jewels section. There is a building that you go into that begins with a very big vault door and inside are tons of beautiful diamonds and other amazing jewels. You can see all of the different crowns the different kings and queens wore on their coronation. One had a 253 karat diamond on it. I don't think I would like that weighing down on my head for three hours. Kate Middleton's wedding dress is supposed to be on display there starting the end of this month! I just barely missed it! But, I did get to see what Queen Elizabeth II wore on her coronation day, it was beautiful! After our tour around we made our way back to our flats to set our school stuff down and then go grocery shopping. We ended up sitting down and didn't get up for another hour. My sleep schedule isn't the greatest here haha. After we finally got up we headed to the grocery store, which by the way is an adventure all its own. The grocery stores here are always SO crazy. We just needed a few items (bread, diet coke, milk, and such) and we grabbed them as quick as we could then headed back home. By the time we got home we were all ready for bed so we got to sleep a little earlier (11pm). It was a great start for the week!

Mind the Gap!

The days here go by so fast and are all a blur. I find myself asking Cydnee what day it is most days. I wish it would just slow down because I am having way too much fun.
Friday we woke up later than usual (9am) because we were so exhausted from our Harry Potter-a-thon the day before. We did our laundry (see mom, I do laundry I promise!) and headed out for a quick lunch and looking around. We found a little Italian place that had a student special, we LOVE those. We found out after we ordered that it was only for "take away" (to go) and it was raining, like it so often does here in London. Luckily they had one table outside that we were allowed to use and it was covered by a little awning. So we enjoyed our pizza and diet coke outside safe from the rain. After that we took the tube to Leicester Square where there are a lot of half price ticket stands and it is pretty much the center of the theater area. We scavenged for some cheap theater tickets but after a few hours came up empty handed. The good news is that we got to explore a lot more of London and found some really cool little shops I will be going back to. After that we decided to head home because we were still feeling it from HP.
Saturday morning we got up early and headed out in hopes of getting tickets for Legally Blonde. They give out 10 for 10 pounds and 15 for 15 pounds right when it opens. But since we are working with five girls, a lot of hair and makeup time, we ended up being a little late. We still got cheap tickets just not as cheap as we were hoping. We got them for the matinee showing and we were in the third row! After we bought the tickets we had a little time to kill so we wandered around china town checking out the little shops and found a delicious chinese place for lunch. We also stumbled upon some very tasty candies that I will be stocking up on before I leave. While we were out looking around we decided just to try and check on wicked tickets for that night even though the whole week they had been sold out. We found a half price ticket lady and she had three seats open (just what we needed!) in the second row on the left. She said it was restricted view but not too bad and they were the cheapest we had heard so we jumped on them! After that good luck we decided we would check for Les Miserables, which has been sold out because there are apparently two famous British people in them this month. When we went to the theater she said she had 3 tickets for only 15 pounds!!! They too are restricted view but she said if we lean forward we can see everything. It was a great day for theater! Legally Blonde was so cute and funny we were all smiling and dancing the whole time. It has always been one of my favorites and the theater version of it was just as good! Wicked that night was AMAZING. That was my fourth time seeing it and it still felt like the first. Wow, that sounds cheesy. But really, I was loving every second of it and it was so cool to see it that close. We were singing the whole tube ride home.
Pictures: the typical tourist photos (mind the gap and red phone booth), legally blonde, and wicked!

Last batch!

I can barley hold my eyes open and I feel like I have been beaten up. Which I sort of have, mostly by the crazy Brazilian people next to me. So...I am just going to sum this up with saying that I am so glad I went and that it was the coolest thing I have done. Standing for seven hours and having my toes crunched was actually worth it. Would I do it for any other movie any other time? NO WAY. But Harry Potter 7 part 2 was well worth it.
ENJOY!!
Lupin, Snape (I think I put that one on), Harry of course!, JK Rowling (looking as fabulous as ever!)

More more more!

I am getting too tired to even write anymore. I am sure everyone knows who these people are! Emma Watson looked like a princess, her dress was so beautiful and classy! Voldemort was actually pretty friendly and Snape's blonde hair really surprised me!
Here you go!