ITALY


Oh how I loved Italy! It is just rich with history. Everywhere we went it seemed like there was a story that could be told there. In some places, especially Cinque Terra, it felt as though we had stepped back in time. There were cute, colorful houses lining the cobble stone streets with laundry hanging out the windows. Italy just seemed so friendly to me. I must say though, the food was not my favorite, excluding the gelato.

FRANCE

France was very different from Italy. It is definitely more modernized. I think I felt the least welcome here. France the biggest mix of old and new styles out of the three countries we went to. There were places like Versailles and Vaux as well as the Pompidou and Villa Savoye. I loved all of the things we did there. Bastille day was among my favorites. However, I'd have to say that France, as a country, was my least favorite, even though they had better food.

England

England was amazing. It had the greatest feeling. It felt sophisitcated and up-to-date, while still preserving its amazing history. There was also a sense of royalty everywhere we went. I really felt like I was living in Pride and Prejudice the whole time I was there. It was just beautiful.

August 4 2009

Fun day! Today we woke up and went to Buckingham Palace! Wow! I loved it! It was beautiful! I’d probably have to say that out of the elaborate palaces and such Buckingham is my favorite! It was very ornate but it was a good ornate. It wasn’t as busy as all the other ones we’ve been to. I loved all the colors in it too! There were actual color schemes instead of every color they had in one room. I really enjoyed it! After that Erica, Scott, and I walked around and had some fun taking pictures! We found some of the guards and took pictures with them! How cool is that? And funny story! So we were taking pictures and we let the guard know what we were doing so he didn’t attack. And Erica wanted one that looked like she was kissing him so we positioned it so it would look like it but he was little compared to her so she tried to get closer. And the guard, who isn’t supposed to move or talk, said to her, “You might as well just kiss me, it’ll be a lot easier”!! Ha ha! It was hilarious! So of course that’s what she did! The smirk on his face is hilarious! I loved it! And we also played in the red telephone booths! So fun! While we were walking around we saw a bunch of guard looking people so we ran over to see what it was. They were filming some sort of guard marching band. I don’t know what they were filming them for but it was fun to see them! Then we came back to the flat and just chilled and did some more homework. Dinner tonight was at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen! Erica and I went. It was good! We got a yummy burger, fries, and a chocolate shake! It was so fun! And now I need to pack to go home! It has been such an amazing experience! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone! I am so incredibly grateful for this experience! I hope I will never forget it all! I truly have loved it!

August 3 2009

Today was a work day! We woke up and Erica and I went on a nice run to Hyde Park. It was very pretty! There’s a lot of grass and trees and flowers in it! And Princess Diana’s castle is in it too! There is also a good sized pond with lawn chairs around it. It was a lot of fun! And while we were there Julia and Amanda ran into us, literally! So that was fun to all be there running through the park! We ran stairs with them up to a monument. That was a workout! But it was fun! Then we all ran back to our flats together. It was so nice to go running! It just feels so good! Then we went to our flats and blogged and blogged and blogged some more! After we made ourselves sick of blogging we paid a visit to Harrod’s. It was awesome! And man that is one expensive store! The designs in it were so cool! They had different rooms and sections of things and each one was designed differently! It was so cool! We went to the food courts and got a strawberry dessert thing. It was interesting but good! The whipped cream and strawberries on the top were my favorite! And it came in a cool little box that will make a nice souvenir! Then we came back to the flat and blogged some more! Work, work, work!

August 2 2009

We went to church again today! Oh how I love to go to church! You really don’t realize just how important it is and how big of a part it is in your life until you can’t go. It really is such a strength that helps me get through the week. I am so grateful for it! It was fast and testimony meeting today. It was really good! Man, some of the things that people are going through are so sad. It makes me so grateful for the things that I have been blessed with! And it stresses even more the importance of learning from all of your little difficulties that come along and also just how important it is to continually put your faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so you can make it through and get the most out of it. I feel for them and for their families. I know they will be immensely blessed for being so strong and enduring through it all. The Relief Society lesson was on the power of music. Music really is so powerful. It can bring the spirit or send it straight away. I really have felt that recently with the musicals that I have been to. Those were great! Next week I’ll be going to church in Utah! How exciting! What a superb Sunday!

August 1 2009

It’s August! Man time is flying! I can’t believe it! Well, today was fun! We got up and got tickets for Wicked! Since we are students we got good seats and a really good deal on them! After getting tickets we went back to Portobello Road and did some shopping. Man it was crowded! Then we came back, took a little nap, and did some homework. Then we went to Wicked! Oh man I loved it! The music, costumes, set design, everything were all amazing! It really was incredible! The actors/actresses all had British accents, but what’s funny is it didn’t really even faze me. I’ve gotten used to hearing it everywhere that is seems normal to me. My favorite is to hear little kids speak with an accent though! Oh I love it! It makes me so happy! I think I’m going to miss hearing that when I go home! Anyways so Wicked was awesome! It was fun to go with Erica and Courtney! Oh and on the way home we passed the tiniest little car! I don’t know how anyone could fit in it! That’s not the first I’ve seen either! It would be fun to try to cram lots of people into one of those! Anyways, so this was another fun day in London!

July 31 2009

Wow! So the other day when I said I was living in Pride and Prejudice, well that defined today! First we went to Haddon Hall. It was awesome! It dates back to the 12th century and was the home of the Manners and the Vernons. And it actually was empty for 200 years between 1700 and 1920! So it has been kept in its original condition fairly well. It’s the most primeval house that we have been to the whole trip. At first I didn’t really like that it was that way, but by the end I loved that it was! It was so cool to see the wear marks in the stones in the steps from centuries of walking on them. You could just get a feel of what they would do and their traffic patterns. Our tour guide said that they didn’t have very good teeth back then so they would have to cut up their food so they would be able to eat it. So in the kitchen are holes that were worn into the countertop from all the cutting and grinding of their food. It was all really interesting! And, like I sort of mentioned before, Pride and Prejudice was also filmed here! The part when Elizabeth gets the letter telling her that her sister just ran off with Mr. Wickham was filmed there! Parts of Princess Bride were filmed there too! But our tour guide said that it’s hard to recognize because of all the props they used. So after our tour of the house we went out to the gardens. Oh man I loved them! Everything was so green! It was overcast so all the colors were so intense! And there were hills of grass and trees that went on forever! The feel of it was so awesome! It was just so calm. And it really felt like I was in Pride and Prejudice! So fun! After that we made our way over to Chatsworth. This is the home of Mr. Darcy! Oh man it was awesome! The inside was very pretty! There is a music room on the second floor with a door that has a violin and bow hanging from a hook by a ribbon painted on it! It looks incredibly real! I would never have known it was a painting unless someone told me and I still had a hard time believing it! It was incredible! But yeah it was beautiful! We also went outside on the grounds. They are huge! There’s a maze, a rock garden, a kitchen garden, a sensory garden, some ponds, a huge water feature, a waterfall, grass, and tons of trees, the list could go on forever! It was very pretty! So in the house is the statue room that they show in the movie! And they even have Mr. Darcy’s bust in it! Oh that was so fun! They have the statue of the girl with the veil over her face! It is beautiful! I love that one! So yeah I was Elizabeth Bennett for the day! I loved it! After we got home we went to this weird thing that was playing at the National Theatre for free. It was projected onto the side of a building. I’ll do my best to describe it, so there was a couple of people that made some music (drums and such) and some one that was “singing” to it. It was more like talking with some occasional note changes in a musical way. This singing was telling a story about Fly Boy and the robot. So while he was singing they put up these cutout silhouettes on the projector that they moved around. It was so weird! But so hilarious because it was just out there! I don’t know if I’ll ever understand modern art. It made for a good chuckle though! So yeah it was a fun day!

July 30 2009

We went to Bath today! It was so cool! The town was fun but the Roman baths were even cooler! They date back to 76 AD! Yeah, old! An audio guide came with admission to Bath and that was very interesting! I had done a report on it in elementary some time and had forgotten most of what I learned so it was so fun to have all that come back to me and to actually be there! It is so interesting what they were used for! They started out in a changing room then moved on to another room where they servants would rub oils and fragrances all over them. They then made their way to a room where the floor was raised up on stacks of bricks and they would blow hot hair from a furnace through the stacks so it heated the floor. They said that the floor would be so hot that if they didn’t have sandals on it would burn their feet. So they would pour water on the floor to create a steam room. After they were all sweated out they moved on to another room where their servants would take a sharp, blade-like thing and scrape their skin to get off any dead skin, dirt, sweat, and hair. Then they would take a dip in a cold water bath for a bit. After that they moved on to the central bath. This is the biggest of all of them. The water comes in from a natural spring called the Sacred Spring. So it’s a nice temperature! The central bath was pretty much just a place to socialize and do business. One interesting thing, the emperor was asked why he bathed once a day and his reply was because he didn’t have time to bathe more than once a day! It was that important to them. The Sacred Spring I mentioned is a natural hot spring that they built a big bath around. They call it the Sacred Spring because they thought it to be a gift from the Gods. People would actually throw prayers and curses into it. There was also a church there that they called the Tholos. So it seems as though they tried to combine their social lives and business with their religion. I found that very interesting. So yeah, there’s a little history lesson for you. It was so cool to be there! On the way back Erica, Jeanette, and I stopped at the grocery store and on our way back to our flat we got on train going the wrong direction but the next stop was the last one for that train so it was ok. But when we got to the next stop the train conductor person got on the speaker and said that it was the last stop and to make sure that you have your personal belongings – your luggage, your laptops, your loved ones (said in a “romantic” voice), your lunch boxes, your rubbish. It was so funny! Then at the end of his announcement he said, remember to keep smiling, a smile is worth nothing until you give it away. So remember to keep smiling!

July 29 2009

Today was fun! I know I start everyday out that way but it’s true about everyday! We got up and rode a train out to Stamford. Ya know, I really like riding those trains! You get to see another side of England that you don’t normally get to see! There are green hills and trees that go on forever and way fun houses scattered along them! And there’s something about it that just feels like you’re in England! I can’t figure it out but it really just feels like it! I love it! And I’m becoming a pro at sleeping on trains and buses now! Anyway so we went out to Stamford and then to Burghley House! Wow I really liked it a lot! And with what I said yesterday about living in these kinds of places I still stick to it but Burghley house seemed to be more livable than the others. It was fun! And it is in Pride and Prejudice too! It’s Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s house! And we went into the rooms where they filmed the scenes in her house (in the dining room and in the big room where Elizabeth plays the piano)!! Oh it was so awesome! I really want to watch it again! Oh and there is a herd of deer that lives on the property! They have had them there forever. And we were able to get up super close to them! How would that be to have your own herd of deer? And tons of land that they could roam on? Crazy is the answer! But it was fun to see that house! It’s so awesome that we are able to do all these things! I don’t think I would have been able to do these if I hadn’t had come with study abroad. We have done some incredible things! Man it’s tiring but it’s fun! Anyways so after we went into Burghley House we went back into Stamford and just wandered around. It is a fun little town! There are a bunch of little local shops that line tiny streets. There’s a decree or something that they put on the town that they can’t do anything to the buildings. So they are all old style! It’s so cool! There’s a little Pub that a lady in one of the stores told us to go to and it was so awesome! It was super old style inside and out! This pub has won some awards for its layout. There are a lot of different levels to it with old furniture on each level. It looks like that is how it was when it was first built! It was so cool! Part of Pride and Prejudice was filmed in the town too! The parts where the regiments are walking through the streets and they go shopping in the ribbon shops are there! Man I loved it! I can’t wait to watch the movie again! All of this is going to make it even better! I sound like such a girl but it really is a great movie! But yeah so it was a fun day! Oh and random but we had lunch at the Burghley House and we had scones with clotted cream and jam! It was good! So the scones were actually like biscuits. And the way I would describe clotted cream is like when you make homemade butter and the cream is just about to turn into butter – not quite to the butter texture but it’s pretty thick. It doesn’t have salt or anything in it so it’s just like a super thick whipped cream. So you just spread that on the biscuit and then put jam on and eat it! Yum! But anyways, it was fun to live in Pride and Prejudice today!

July 28 2009

Another fun day! We got up and went to Oxford where we went to Blenheim Palace! I really liked it! Blenheim Palace is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. It was built between 1705 and 1722! It is beautiful! I love the gardens! It is on 2100 acres of land so there’s a lot there! The house was pretty too! It still just astonishes me that people actually lived and still live in places like that! They are so beautiful and big! I don’t think I could live in a house like that; it would be too big and not so comfortable. But they’re fun to look at! I wouldn’t mind the gardens though! In the back there’s a courtyard in the back that has some fountains in it. There is also a pretty big lake that runs through a lot of it. They even have boats to go out on it. We walked down into the back courtyard and up around the other side of the house and came to a huge grass lawn that went on forever! It was awesome! It made me want to take my shoes off and just run! So I did a little bit! Oh it was fun! The grass was really soft too! Then we made our way over to the Secret Garden. It was very pretty! It has a huge variety of plants and flowers! They are even labeled so we know what they are. It was very pretty! Then we made our way over to the Rose Gardens. That was also very pretty! And just like it sounds, there are a bunch of roses and they are also labeled. There was one kind of rose that was a beautiful orange and pink color that had the strongest, sweetest smell! I would have liked it but the other day we tried some rose chocolates that were disgusting and they reminded me of that. So if I hadn’t have had the chocolate they would have smelled very good. I really just enjoyed walking around the grounds and gardens! It was so beautiful! And very fun and relaxing! So it was a fun day at Blenheim! After that we went to Portobello Road and went all along the shops. That was fun! But the “Portobello Road” song from Bed knobs and Broomsticks kept going through my head! I may be singing that for the next week! But yeah it was a lot of fun!