Well, Its official- I've completed my first full week in London. It seems like I've been here forever and I can hardly remember my life before London. I must be starting to look like a London native because I've been asked directions 3 times, and the third time I was able to give them successfully! It has actually been a little over a week, I've been here 9 days now, and I've only been rained on once so I am counting my blessings! My only rain encounter was my run through Kensington Gardens on Tuesday morning- it didn't even rain the rest of the day. We have had warm (actually unseasonably warm for London) weather with beautiful sunshine and a nice breeze. Today has been the coolest of the days, where I again count my blessings because the tube usually ends up being 20 degrees hotter than it is outside. Gross. But I'm loving each day and don't know what I will do when I have to leave. So let me bring you up to speed on the last few days.

Thursday, July 1, 2010
Thursday morning I went running again in Hyde Park, and I think my out-of-shape body finally caught up with me and I was a bit sore afterward. Then we had classes and enjoyed a lively discussion about Pride and Prejudice and Penny Bird's constant interjections of "Be still my heart!" whenever we discussed Mr. Darcy. He really is dreamy. I need to find myself one of those. And then we talked about more sad and depressing topics in my Great War and Modernism class. Mostly a usual day. And while most people were out visiting museums and shopping at Primark (London's version of Walmart), I decided to be a good student and spent the afternoon catching up on homework (which I thanked myself for over and over again throughout the weekend) and completing my first London Blog entry. After dinner, my roommate Jessica Glover and I rushed off to St. Paul's for an organ concert which was absolutely INCREDIBLE. To get to hear that impressive organ reverberating throughout that magnificent building was an experience I won't soon forget. And the organist played Variations of 'America' so I heard "America the Beautiful" in the middle of London-in the middle of St. Paul's. It was very interesting. But awesome. After the concert Jessica and I wandered across the Millennium Bridge and explored Southwark (pronounced sutherk) which is apparently very full of attractive British men in suits on a Thursday evening. Then Jessica, Lauren, Hannah and I hit up Tesco and bought a chocolate cake and the world's tiniest carton of milk, which we completely obliterated in a matter of minutes (like 2). All in all, it was a pretty good day.



Friday, July 2, 2010
Friday was EPIC. It was our first day trip and we went to Canterbury and Cambridge. At Canterbury, we visited St. Augustine's Abbey and St. Augustine's burial place. St. Augustine was the first missionary to reintroduce Christianity to England. Next to the ruins of the Abbey is the great Canterbury Cathedral which became the 3rd largest site of Pilgrimage in the world after Thomas Beckett was murdered inside the Cathedral really as a result of a miscommunication and was later dubbed St. Thomas for his martyrdom. It is also where the Archbishop of Canterbury sits. The Cathedral was incredible and I probably could have spent days there taking everything in. After the morning at Canterbury and a guided tour of the Cathedral, we got back on the bus and drove another 2 hours to Cambridge where we arrived just 5 minutes too late to get a guided tour of Kings College which was a hugh bummer. So instead, we went punting on the Cam and got a tour of Cambridge and all of its many magnificent colleges from the river with our hilarious tour guide Steve. On our way back to the dock, our long punting pole splintered and nearly broke in half so it was pretty slow going for a while. We were thankfully able to borrow a new one from another dock along the way because it the pole had broken completely in half, we would have been quite stuck in the middle of the river... It was an adventure. And it was so beautiful. Certain parts of the college are roughly 800 years old. It is the 4th oldest university in the world. After punting, we attended Evensong at King's College Chapel whose magnificent fan-vaulted ceilings are one of the great architectural gems of the world. And the choir sounded amazing. I had no idea little boys could hit notes that high... But they can. And they do it with style. It was amazing. We didn't get back from our trip until around 9pm, afterwards which Jessica and I went and got Thai food from a small place on Queensway. It was a perfect day.
The Ruins at St. Augustine's Abbey

Me and Hannah in front of Canterbury Cathedral

Saturday, July 3, 2010
Saturday was a day of great anticipation because we had tickets to see Les Miserables. But first, my roommates and I slept in, and then went shopping on Portobello Road, which is a market they have on Saturdays full of different vendors selling antiques and other random souvenirs. It was a zoo and I'm not sure how much I enjoyed it, but it was definitely an experience. Then we came back, got dressed up, and headed to Queen's Theatre for Les Mis, featuring the great Nick Jonas as Marius. We left a littler later than we had planned and ended up literally running to the theatre (me in my heels- not the wisest shoe choice but my legs looked darn good) where we made it into our seats with sweat running down our faces and a whole minute to spare before they turned the lights down. The performance was so good and while Nick Jonas' voice was not as strong as most of the other voices, he did a really good job holding his own and he was just adorable. He certainly looked the part, and in his defense, he was at least 10 years younger than the rest of the cast. He's still a baby. I thought he was adorable and it was worth the whole 28.5 pounds to see the performance, even though we sat in the second to last row. We were still able to see virtually everything. I loved it. Then we went and got our first Fish and Chips since being in London, which were divine, and then set off for home to watch a movie before bedtime.
The Interior of Canterbury Cathedral

The Shrine to Thomas Beckett in the Hall where he was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral

A View of King's College Chapel from the Cam

Clark's attempt at Punting on the Cam

A Very Attractive Punting Tour Guide (Yes, this picture was essential)


Portobello Road

Today, Sunday, July 4, 2010
Well, sadly when you spend the 4th of July in London, you don't really get to celebrate it. The British don't really think the day is as great as we do. Oh well. But we did get to go to our new wards today! It was one of the most amazing experiences I've had so far since being in London. I attend the Peckham ward which can be reached very easily by tube, if you have a complete set of directions, which we did not. We only had partial directions, and no street address, so after we got off the tube we wandered around aimlessly for about 30 minutes before we spotted a group of people in white shirts, ties, Sunday dress, and scriptures in their hands, and inquired if they were LDS which they happily replied that they were and we followed them to church. They were a family (2 brothers and 1 sister) that were originally from Ecuador and I got to speak some Spanish with them. They were so friendly and some of the nicest people. We snuck into one of the back rows of the chapel only 6 minutes late. And since we are the luckiest girls, it just happened to be fast Sunday and they singled us out and asked all the BYU students to come up and bear their testimonies. But I wasn't even nervous. They were all so friendly and welcoming. Nearly half the ward went out of their way to come up and greet us. I got called to teach Youth Sunday School, which I was completely stoked about, until I realized it was Old Testament and I got a little nervous but I'm still really excited. Virtually the entire ward consists of converts, but they are spiritual giants. I was so humbled to hear their amazing testimonies. I know I am going to love serving in this ward and I'm never going to want to leave it. I love it so much after just one day.