Do You Dance, Mr. Darcy? Not If I Can Help It.

So, I'm back from France, and this week has been a bit of a "catch-up" week. I've been waking up ridiculously early just to have a chance for the computer, as there are 4 computers for the 30 or so of us without laptops. I have been doing homework, and papers, and all of those things that go along with school, even when you cross an ocean to avoid them.

Wednesday's little highlight was our trip to Hampton Court, which was the palace of people like Henry VIII. I actually liked it a lot better than Versailles, oddly enough. It just seemed more real, and you saw more things. For example, did you know that they would skin a peacock, boil it whole, and then put all the skin and feathers and beak and everything back on and serve it like that? Ick. ICK!! I also had the wonderful experience of running for the train back to London and just barely stepping inside as the train starting moving. It was really kind of cool.

Side Note: The food here is way too good. There are several courses every night, including a new exciting and wonderful dessert. This does not bode well for my wardrobe.

Sooo, yesterday, I had no class because I just don't take the Thursday classes. Instead, I worked on homework and went to the British library to do some research for a religion paper. When we got home, highlights included hearing two of the guys sing a twenty minute free-verse song about spawning salmon, star wars, Brazil, and the list goes on. I couldn't stop laughing. I also went to go see Pride and Prejudice. I know that this doesn't come out until November in the U.S., but you really need to go see it. It is THAT good. I just sat there, halfway between transfixed and giddy. Mr. Darcy is fantastic. When he walks out of the mist, you will wish you were on a country walk yourself. Go camp out now for tickets. If you wait for the dollar theater, I will totally come with you. Several times, even.

I'm taking a country walk today myself, but I doubt that Mr. Darcy is going to come walking out of the mist. It's just going to be 40-odd cold, muddy Americans. Drats.

Par-ee Holds the Key To Her Heart...

This is all anyone sang all week. We really needed a new song. Come on, people, some Cole Porter! I love Paris in the springtime... Anyway, I digress. This is quite long, so just skim if you don't have much time.

Monday began super-early so that
we could get to the Eurostar, which is the one through the Chunnel. I wish I could
awe you with my reflections of the Chunnel, but to be honest, I was asleep. Once
we got in, it was straight onto the bus to northern France. First, we stopped at
Chartres cathedral (which I did my paper on for the prep class) for a huge total
of 30 minutes. It was great, but I have no pictures because I accidentally locked
my camera under the bus. Oops! Then, it was a very very very long bus trip to Caen
(the city with an unpronounceable name) to the ugliest hotel ever. I complain about
Best Westerns, but this was far far worse. No pictures on the stucco-y white walls,
magenta metal bunk bed and tv trim, and bathroom the size of my closet in Heritage.
Andrea B. and I just sort of looked at it and laughed. Also, cruddy breakfast of
solely hot cocoa, orange drink (i.e. French Tang) and boring bread. Bleh. We decided
to explore the town, which is filled with old churches and a castle of William the
Conqueror that you can just walk all around. We all went to dinner together while
in Caen, which was lamb, pate, and yum-yum-yum chocolate cake that day.

So, moving on to Tuesday, which was a very heavy day. The day started off to see
the Bayeux Tapestry, which is essentially a really big piece of embroidered propaganda.
Impressive propaganda, but still, propaganda. It's much bigger than I had imagined.
Random Aside: I had my first croque-monsieur! It could probably go all the way around
the cultural hall. From then on out, it was all WWII. We went to Pointe du Hoc,
which is completely scarred by the bombs and the German artillery, and then to the
American Cemetary. You can walk to Omaha Beach from the Cemetary, which really
put things into a profound perspective for me. It's far bigger than you would ever
want it to be, and for a place that should be touristy and buzzing, its peaceful
and still. We went to this museum for peace in Caen, which was interesting. French
people definitely see things from a different persepective than we do globally,
especially in response to the Cold War.

Wednesday! Otherwise known as Bus Day. We did see Mont St. Michel, which is this
beautiful monastery on an island that is only connected to land at low tide. When
you see it in the morning, surrounded by mist, it looks more like something out
of a dream. Inside, it's a traditional monastery in a very touristy setting, but
I still really enjoyed it. It's on top of a bit of a hill, so this was the first
of the huge painful stairs. This was like a motif the whole trip. Then, we drove
for something like six hours (or at least it felt like it) back to Paris. This
hotel was still ugly, but there were 3 of us instead of 2 (Kelli, MJ and me), so
it was two single beds below rather than a double. We were too beat to see very
much, but a very large group decided to see the view from Sacre Coeur. This is
when we discovered that we lived in a seedy neighborhood. My little group didn't
see anything scarier than huge painful stairs #2, but other people saw police action
and drug deals. Sacre Coeur is a Taj-Mahal like cathedral on top of a huge hill
with a fantastic view of Paris.

And it's time for Thursday... The first real day in Paris! We went to the Louvre
first thing, which is unbelievably huge. I think that my favorite things were seeing
the Mona Lisa, Liberte Guidant le Peuple, the Napoleon III Apartments, Hammurabi's
Code, and the Islamic Art exhibit so close! It makes them seem very real. After
that, we were absolutely starving, so we found a little sidewalk cafe where I had
french onion soup and a limonade (not quite lemonade, but hard to explain). It was
still time for dessert though, so I had this awesome white chocolate raspberry tart
from a patisserie. Refreshed, we went to the d'Orsay, which is the Impressionist
museum. I love, love, love Impressionism, ever since French 4, so I was just sooo
happy. I was a little upset because a lot of my favorite pictures are on loan to
other museums, but one was on loan to the Tate Britain, so I can still see it!
This began the part where we wandered. A Long Time. All for an internet cafe. Meh.
I'm so glad I can wean myself from the internet for a while, and I don't take 300
pictures in 2 days. Notre Dame was next on the list. We climbed all the way to
the top (HPS #3) and got to see gargoyles and bells and all that jazz. For dinner,
one of the girls in our group was dead set on Hard Rock Cafe. It wouldn't have
been my first choice, but I really did enjoy having a cheeseburger after so long.
We walked around, and after a few false starts, found the opera house, which just
made me want to watch Phantom again. The last things we did were climb to the top
of the Arc de Triomphe (HPS #4) and down the Champs Elysees, which is a little touristy.

And then, Friday, which was a very long day. We started off the day on the slow
train to Versailles. Versailles, really, is an elaborately decorated ruse to keep
the nobles under Louis XIV's wing. I still think it was beautiful and the grounds
were great, but in perspective, it's not quite as fabulous as it could be. I had
a Nutella crepe, yum. We decided to go to the catacombs, where we accidentally met
up with a lot of our group. A long time ago, people were getting sick from cemetary
fumes, so they dug up all of the bones and put them in these tunnels. It was creepy
in the extreme. We were still hungry, so we went to a gourmet chocolatier and tried
two a piece. Next, we saw Sainte Chappelle, which has fabulous and amazing stained
glass. I loved it! For dinner, we went to this adorable little crepe place on the
rue Mouffetard, which is that combo of cobblestones, cafes, and shops that I've
always viewed as Paris. We also got gelato in the shape of a rose, which was amazing.
We had promised people that we would meet them at 8:30 at the Eiffel Tower, so we
ran to the Metro. It kept stopping,and three stops away, they made everyone get
off. Apparently, there was a bomb, so I got to see the bomb squad! We had no idea
where we were, but luckily, the Eiffel Tower is kind of hard to miss. Did you know
that the Eiffel Tower sparkles on the hour? The view from the top is amazing! Mary
Jane and I had so much fun spotting our favorite Paris places. The way back to
the hotel was scary, though. The stop we wanted to go to was closed off and surrounded
by Ministry of Defense trucks, and then creepy guys either yelled at us from moving
cars/invited us to the disco/stopped their cars in an intersection to hit on us.
I do not like that part of Paris.

Saturday! Aren't you glad I'm almost done? This will be faster, I promise. We
went to the flea market, which I did not enjoy because I like my goods neat and
new and clean and well-lit, and I don't like to barter. Icky icky icky. Next,
we went to Pere Lachaise cemetary, which also reminded me of Phantom of the Opera.
I think the whole trip reminded me of Phantom of the Opera. I need a better cultural
marker. We saw Oscar Wilde's tomb, which is covered in lipstick kisses, which I
sadly think are mostly from men. Ick. Really quick, we got more rose-shaped gelato,
which needs to make its way to Provo, pronto. We went into the Pantheon, which
has a Foucault pendulum featured on season one of the Amazing Race. I am so addicted!
The whole trip, I kept thinking either-1)Hey, this was on the Amazing Race! 2) I
feel like I'm on the Amazing Race 3) This would be great on the Amazing Race or
4) The Amazing Race starts this week and I'm missing it!!!!! So yeah, watch for
me. We also went to the Pompidou, which has the fountains from the modern version
of Sabrina. My verdict on the Pompidou: Fountains are great, modern art not so
much. Finally, after much metro and luggage lugging, we made our way to the Eurostar
and back to the London Center. However, this was slowed by the fact that there
was a body under the train on our line, so we took a creative way home. If you
have any more questions, feel free to ask, but I think I pretty much exhausted this.

I miss you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that Fall Semester is treating you well!

What a Wild Whirlwind Week!

This week has been jam-packed and crazy, but I'm starting to get the feeling that's just the way things are around here. It started off with a bang with my birthday, and just kept going from there. On Wednesday, we went to see the Tower of London, which is not really just one tower like I always thought it was. It is filled with the crown jewels(which include a very large punch bowl), various torture implements (not so pretty) and a lot of towers where people were imprisoned. Oddly enough, it also used to hold a zoo. We also went for a very enoyable walk of the south bank of the Thames. On Friday, we went to Kew Gardens, which is the Royal Botanic Garden. I thought it would be boring, but it is completely beautiful and has plants from around the world. It also had a bunch of glass work by Chihuly, who was obviously inspired by his hair, so there were this huge masses of glass curls. Very neat.

I have also met a new obsession: playing Jack the Ripper. It's a lot like Fugitive, but in London with tricky clues. You have five groups, trying to find things and take pictures of them, and one group trying to kidnap group members on the way. We were the kidnappers (Rippers) and it was a blast. The clues were tricky (Tyburn Street Gallows, Burghers of Calais, Cleopatra's Needle, and Baker Street Station), and I actually met a Lord! From the House of the Lords! He gave us directions and talked to us! It was super-super-super-cool! I felt like I was on the Amazing Race, which is always a plus in my book.

Yesterday, I went to a stake YSA activity, which was an international dinner, which was even cooler because everyone there was actually international. There was also dancing and karaoke, which is always fun to watch. That group was so great and so fun, which is more than I could say for my summer ward.

I leave for France in about 24 hours, so I won't be posting for a while. Until then, have a great week!

There Was an Old Lady who Lived in a Tower

That's right, I am officially no longer a teenager! Yesterday was my 20th birthday, and it was super-fun. It was also the 21st birthday of Susie and Heather, so I got to be a triplet. When we woke up in the morning, a bunch of the other girls made us special happy birthday signs and decorated our doorway with toilet paper streamers. Everyone was so sweet that it made being away a lot easier than it could have been. We had a big lemon cake with raspberry filling. So, after they sang happy birthday, Heather and I were just sort of smiling, when Susie just blows out all the candles. She thought we were going to as well, but instead, we just all started laughing. Then, David decided that it was a London tradition to smash birthday cake in people's faces, so he came around behind all of us and shoved frosting in our faces. I've decided that the cake tastes better through your mouth than your nose. After dinner, a big group of us went to see Mary Poppins, the musical. It is absolutely fantastic. It's sweet and beautiful and energizing, and I walked out with a smile on my face. I also loved getting my little sister's 20 birthday cards, which made me laugh. There were parts of the day when I wished I was in San Jose or Provo, but all in all, I was okay.

Look at me! I'm cultured!

Over the past few days, I've felt more and more like a habitual big city dweller. We take the underground just about everywhere, so I'm feeling very comfortable with it. There are far fewer truly scary people on this one than New York's, so I think that helps. I'm trying new foods, like Indian and Lebanese and fish, but I draw the line at prawn crisps (potato chips) I go to museums just about all the time, which I am loving. Provo needs big cool museums. I am aware that BYU has museums, but trust me, they are not this awesome. On Friday, we went to a play at the reconstruction of the Globe and watched as groundlings. The play (A Winter's Tale) was great, and the funniest part was when the minstrel started hitting on Leslie, the engaged girl in our group. She turned bright red and started pointing at her ring. Shakespeare is definitely meant to be watched, not read. It was soo much more interesting this way. Yesterday, we did the coolest thing. I live right at the edge of Kensington Park/Hyde Gardens, and yesterday the BBC put on a huge concert there. Officially it was 20 pounds (40 dollars), but we decided to just hang around the outskirts and listen. It was raining and there was lightning, but that just added to it. Highlights: Andrea Bocelli! Right there! Live! This Il-Divo-esque British group singing Bohemian Rhapsody. Fantastic live orchestra. Interpretive dancing and making fun of the old whtie soul singer. Scottish bagpipe with Japanese war drum. This Japanese lady with a giant umbrella, who got it totally stuck in this narrow door, and then could not figure out why at all. We got back rather late and rather wet, but it was absolutely worth it.

You Don't See That Every Day...

Over the past four days, I think I've been able to say that A LOT. Monday, after class, we took a walk around where the Roman wall used to be. You don't get to see things that are 2000 years old every day, for sure! Also, you don't see 4.5 bronze statues of very large mostly naked ladies either, but I could have done without that myself. Tuesday, in addition to my three awesome classes, we went to Harrod's ( A rather pricey department store). We saw lots of pig's heads in the food halls, some highly expensive blingy jewelry, and about four or five different kinds of fur and expensive coats. Wednesday we went to Canterbury and Dover, where I learned all about Becket and the now-not-so-secret secret war tunnels. Also, we got to see the white cliffs of Dover, which are totally breathtaking. Today, I don't have any class, so we went to the Museum of London with six of us. Two broke off, and then the other four of us decided to take the three-or-so hour walk home. On the way, we stopped at Buckingham Palace, where we saw this grown woman relieving herself-right in front of the palace. She was like " I'm quite sorry, but it was either this or wet myself" Okay....

I love my ward!

So, I've been posting a lot recently, but I think it's just because it's the start of the semester and there's so many new things! Well, anyways, we got assigned to wards just yesterday, and I'm going to the Mitcham ward, which is south of the Thames. It's a 10 minute tube ride, then a 20 minute train ride, then a 10 to 15 minute walk. My ward is sooo welcoming! I think they were 100 percent friendlier than my singles ward. The ward is mostly African, which is pretty cool. It's in an absolutely gorgeous area, so all in all, it's just a very relaxing and edifying experience. I also got really lucky and I go to church with Heather Stay and Tasha, and they are great. I'm just so excited!

Anything and everything a chap can unload.

As you may have guessed by the title, I went to the legendary Portobello Road yesterday (at least, legendary for those of you who've seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks). Sadly, there were no big dance numbers, but there were a very large variety of street vendors and some very very old books. I also went on a walk through my neighborhood, which includes Hitler's favorite building (currently a shopping mall), a nifty Greek Orthodox church, a very large park, several Tube stops and innumerable eating establishments.

One of the things I love about London is that it's so very diverse. When we walked through Whiteley's, which is the mall, there was a group of African drummers, playing and dancing in the middle of the mall. When I went to read in Kensington Gardens, there were apparently Scottish dancers, but I just heard the music. Last night, we had Indian food, which was absolutely fantastic.

I also played Apples to Apples, whcih made me feel like I was back in Provo! Not quite as much fun as a nuclear blast, but close. Classes don't start until Monday, but I think they will be fun. How are all of your classes?

It's a magic number...

So, here's a little guessing game. Why is 82 such an important number in my day-to-day life? Here's a hint, it's not my address...

I'm Sorry to Tell You, You Have Been Eliminated...

Today, I tragically learned that I am really not cut out for the Amazing Race. Actually, I knew that already because I am big huge klutz who gets really irritable without much sleep, but today just confirmed that. So, let's just look at some skills needed for the Amazing Race and how I rated on those...

1) Ability to stay calm in an airport. My flight from Chicago was delayed, which did not make me particularly happy. Also, I was completely unable to stay alert at the baggage claim, which could also be a problem. On the other, no major panic attacks this time. 5/10

2)Ability to carry one's own luggage. Nothing bothers me more on The Amazing Race when someone whines and drops their luggage and makes their partner carry it. I should have taken that into account before bringing this particular duffle: doesn't roll well, but too heavy to carry. I was doing really, really well until we were about two blocks from the center, when David volunteered to just stack it on his own luggage. Also, Mary Jane and I had to each take an end of all of our luggage to get it up to the 6!th floor. 4/10.

3) Does not get lost. I did remarkably well at this. I think it is because I obsessively studied maps of London all summer so I would know the tube route and the exact location of the London Centre. 10/10

4) Endurance. I was sooooo tired that unpacking my luggage exhausted me and I slept for the next two hours. I don't really think that is much of a skill 2/10.

And this is why I would be eliminated. Not even one of those close race to the finish ends, but one of those you-were-so-late-that-everyone-is-on-another-continent-by-now ends.

Hope semester is going well and I'll post more later!