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!

July 27 2009

Another adventurous day! It started early again, no sleeping in today. It started out by going to Wilton House. Wilton House is where the Earls of Pembroke live. It’s a pretty fancy house! It’s designed in a Palladian style. Oh and scenes of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility were filmed there! So cool! It was a nice house though! There are paintings of all the Earls that have lived there including the current one. And in the current one’s painting he’s sitting at a table that has a laptop and a motorbike helmet on it! I thought that was pretty funny! Before we went in the house we watched a movie that told about the history of the house and of the Earls of Pembroke. It was pretty interesting. Then we went through the house and made our way out to the gardens. The gardens were very pretty. There was a little stream that ran through it that had a pretty bridge that went across it. Oh and side note, the Earl just barely got engaged. How crazy and not so fun would that be to marry the Earl of Pembroke? What would you do all day? There’s no need for you to work or clean or anything. I guess you could go sit in the gardens and relax, but I think that’d get old after a couple of days. They probably have a private jet that can take them anywhere so they probably go sit in other gardens when they get bored with their own. J Anyways, so after the garden tour they gave us fresh lemonade and pastries. Those were good! So that was fun! Then after Wilton House we made our way to the Salisbury Cathedral. That was awesome! The ceilings had groin vault ceilings! And it also has a lot of sarcophaguses in it that have statues of the person laying on it. Those were pretty cool! We also had a tour there around it and of the history of it. It was interesting! And then we got another tour of it from above! So we hiked up a bunch of stairs to one level where we were up pretty high and could see in the church then we went up even more stairs and got to the second level where you could see the top of the groin vaults and some structural beams! It was cool to see it from that view! Then we walked up some more stairs to another level and got some more history info and then walked up a tiny spiral staircase to another level! The bells were on this level and we just so happened to get up there just before four o’clock so we got to hear and see the bells chime! It was awesome! But very loud! After the bells chimed we made our way up another tiny spiral staircase to another level! On this level were four tiny little doors that we could go out on a tiny little balcony outside! Wow what an awesome view! We have been so lucky to see views like that in all the places we have gone! It was so awesome! So this last level we went to was the start of the spire. This spire made it the tallest in the world for a long time! I guess there’s only one that just recently beat it. So we could see all the way up the spire and see all the support through it! It was awesome! After we enjoyed the view we made our way all the way back down all those stairs. Then we all jumped into some taxis! I rode backward in it! They have fold down seats that face the other way! And of course they’re driving on the wrong side of the road! It was crazy! So we took taxis out to Stonehenge! Wow that was so cool! It’s so crazy to think how it could have been built! It’s just so cool! We had audio tours that we followed along with and that was cool to hear their predictions and other information about it all! Wow it really was so cool! Another fun/adventurous day!

July 26 2009

We went to church today! Oh man it was so wonderful! I have really been longing to go to church! This was the first time going since we left for study abroad, so it’s been a while. Ya know, of all the millions of churches/cathedrals/basilicas that we have gone to here none of them feel the way ours does. Sure they are breathtakingly beautiful buildings and are incredible to see but that’s it. I can only think of one that we’ve been to that tried to enforce the rules and have people be quiet in them. But even still there is no reverence in all the churches we go to. I find that sad. The purpose of going to church is to remember the Savior, and I find that hard to do when the building is demanding all the attention. And yeah the buildings are amazing and I’m so thankful for them and their beauty but when they are so elaborate it’s hard to focus on their purpose. I love the welcoming feeling you get when you go to our church. It’s like being home again. The meeting was good today. The Sunday school lesson was on enduring through our trials and knowing that Heavenly Father is always there for us and He has a plan for us. It always makes my heart ache when we have lessons like these. There are some people that have gone through so much. I feel for them. And I also am in awe of them for continuing through those trials and putting their trust and their lives in Heavenly Father’s hands. I have been very blessed in my life and haven’t had to deal with a lot of major trials. I know that there is a lot I have to learn from all the little trials that I have had and am facing right now. And they will help me prepare for the bigger trials that are to come. I know that Heavenly Father won’t give us more than we can handle and when it seems as though they are, He will help us through it if we ask and have faith in him. That is such a comfort to know that He will be there beside us through it all if we let him. He may not take our suffering away but He will help us have the right attitude about it all and help us learn what we need to from it. We will be so blessed if we do endure through them and stay strong in the gospel and in our faith. So yeah church was great today! I don’t want to go that long again without going to church. I really missed it. But yeah so we went to church today and came back to our flat and had lunch. After lunch I took a one hour nap that accidentally turned into a three and a half hour nap. It felt nice but it was a little too long. So we got up and ate dinner and now I’m writing this. It has been a nice and relaxing day.

July 25 2009

What a fun day! We slept in again, loved that! Then we got up and got ready and after a bit we went out to lunch. I got fish and chips! Yum so good! They even came with some mushy peas! We ate at a restaurant that’s right on the corner of the street next to the Lion King Broadway musical theatre. And after we ate we went in that theatre and saw Lion King! Oh man I loved it!! It was amazing! The costumes, set design, and music were all incredible! It was just amazing! They had people dressed up like all sorts of things – lions, cheetahs, a baboon, gazelle, giraffe, elephants, hyenas, birds, a mirror cat, a wart hog, all sorts of plants, and more! Wow it really was incredible! All of the actors acted like what they were too! With their movements and everything! I just loved it! This is kind of funny but all three of us (Erica, Courtney Morrison, and I) all got very emotional during the very first scene! They all came out and the emotions started flowing. It was just so good! And I guess that also shows you the power of music. I think Rafiki was my favorite character! It was played by a girl and wow could she sing! She also was talking in the African click language! Holy cow that was the coolest thing! I was seriously blown away by it! I really enjoyed it so much! After Lion King got over Erica, Courtney and I all got an ice cream cone that had a Cadbury flake bar in it. It was good! Then we walked over to Covent Garden and looked around in some shops there. On our way there we passed a couple of people doing magic tricks on the street. It was funny to see that! So yeah we walked around a little bit into the shops and then came back to our flat. It was such a fun day!

July 24 2009

Well today was a very relaxing day. I slept in! Wow that felt good! Then we got ready and went and got tickets for the Lion King musical! So we'll see that tomorrow! I'm so excited! Then we went to the grocery store and I did laundry and worked on homework. So it was a pretty uneventful day but it was still good! It's nice to have days to relax a bit. So these patterns that I posted are inspired by their corresponding pictures of items in the V&A Museum, Tate Modern Museum, and British Museum, respectfully. They are part of the homework that I have been working on.

July 23 2009

Another long but fun day! We went to Cambridge today! The town of Cambridge is really fun. There’s some good shopping that could be done there! We got a guided tour of the city and started out with the All Saints Cathedral. It was built to be asymmetrical, and it is but in a weird sort of way. The two halves of the church don’t match up and everything is just a little too off. It wasn’t my favorite style. There were a lot of different patterns on the walls that were pretty cool. We then made our way to the church at King’s College that is on Cambridge University’s campus. Wow that was amazing! It had the coolest fan vaulted ceiling! It is a long and narrow church, which is different from the other ones that we have been to. It is a pretty important church. All of the royal family has been there since it was first built until today. Queen Elizabeth went to a play there and we saw exactly where she would have sat. Apparently she didn’t like the play very much, funny. But yeah it was really cool! So after we went there we had a lunch break so Erica, Jeanette, Scott, and I went and by a little canal that runs through the campus and at our lunch. While we were sitting there a duck jumped up out of the water and waddled up to us and ate food out of our hands! It was really funny! After we ate our lunch with our duck friend we made our way over to a museum. It was cool! We had to hurry so we went through it pretty fast but it was still cool! There were some amazing paintings in it! After we went through that we went punting! Punting is kind of like riding a gondola, but they are shaped differently. So we punted along the canal that we ate next to. It was fun! The canal went through all the colleges at Cambridge University so they told us about everything as we passed by it. It was fun! After all that we made our way back to the flat. The train station that we came into was King’s Cross! And you know what that is… Harry Potter’s station! Yeah and guess what they have there? Platform 9 ¾!! How cool is that?! They even cut a luggage cart and stuck it in the wall so it looked like it was going through! Oh man I think I was a little too excited about it! So that ended my day very well!

July 22 2009

We had a bright and early start to the day today. We got up at 4:30 and got ready and took the Britrail out to Kidderminster, where the Brinton Carpet’s birthplace, headquarters, and one of their warehouses is located. It was awesome! They first told us a little bit about their company. It was started in 1783! Isn’t that crazy? I can’t believe how old it is. They split us into four groups and took us on different tours. So we started out with a tour of their warehouse where they make the carpet. Wow that was so awesome! We saw all the huge spools of yarn and how they put it all together to weave the carpets. There are two different styles of carpet, axminster and wilton. We got to see both ways of how they put it together! It really was so cool! So the way they make carpet it to take the huge spools of yarn and they have a machine that cuts the right amount of each color that they need to make the carpet. Then that yarn is hooked up to a thing that sucks it up and, depending on which carpet it is, it gets weaved together to the backing. After it’s all put together they check it for any mistakes and if there are any they will hand sew it to correct it! Crazy! And since the hard backing isn’t on yet it doesn’t show that they do that. After they do that it is run through a machine that shaves it down and makes it all one even length. Then they cut the extra sides off and run it through the backing machine. So it just runs over the gooey backing stuff and gets flashed dried. After that it is final inspected and then rolled up and shipped off. It’s quite the process. But it was cool to see all that. After that tour we went in and another guy told us about all their different patterns and designs and about some projects they have done. They can pretty much make anything you want. You can customize it in pretty much any way you want. It’s cool! After that they gave us lunch, which was interesting. I had a thing that tasted kind of like a cake doughnut on the outside but it had some sort of sausage thing in the middle… yeah it wasn’t very good. Anyways, so after lunch we got a tour of their archive. They have kept all of their designs from forever ago and they have also collected others that date back to the 1800’s! They were amazing! It has been a great resource not only to them but to others. When there is a renovation project that needs to be done, people will turn to them for help in knowing what the carpets should look like for that time period and also for color schemes and such. It really was so cool to see all those. They also had a book that had a bunch of swatches of fabrics that also date back a while. Man that was so fun to look through those! It’s crazy to see how modern some of those patterns are even though they are very old. After that tour we talked to some of the designers about some of the things they do. They will often times be sent samples of existing carpets and will need to match the colors and patterns into new ones. They also showed us some of the carpets that they have designed in the computer. One of them was over 200 feet wide! It was huge! They said it took them a couple years to come up with that whole pattern! So after that tour was the end of our little adventure for the day. It was a cool experience! They wouldn’t let us take pictures though so I don’t have any to share. But man it was cool! So Brinton’s picked us up at the train station so they took us back there. And the ride back was so funny! We were all dead tired from our constant busy schedules and from waking up so stinking early so it made for one entertaining ride! Ha ha! So we were all falling asleep in our seats, including me. I was sitting and bobbing next to Erica and all the sudden she started laughing and turns to me and says, “I just hit my head on the window!” She bobbed right into it! Ha ha! And from then on we couldn’t contain our laughter! Since we couldn’t take pictures earlier we decided we needed to take some so we tried to take some of us “sleeping” and we still could not stop laughing! Then we looked around our van of people and saw some more heads bobbing and necks suffering from whiplash! Ha ha it was the funniest thing! All that laughing and the lack of sleep on our parts just got us going for a long time! And we’ve been trying to pick up the British accent while we’ve been here so we practiced it a bit on the drive too. I have a lot of work to do! Ha ha! That was so fun! Erica and I are having way too much fun together! After we got home from the Brinton Carpet day (around 7:15!) we made spaghetti for dinner! It was so tasty! It was nice to be able to make something for ourselves and have it taste good! It wasn’t gourmet by any means but it was just what we needed! And thus ends another fun day full of excitement, fun, and adventure. And a lot of laughs!