West coast trip!

3/22/08

I have to say that this was one of the most incredible trips I have taken around England. This last week was our trip to the west coast. We had origionally planned to take the trip last week but a hurricane left us making a few changes. Penzance was completely covered in water and so we did the first half of our trip last week, which was our trip to Bath, and we did Penzance this week. In the end it was the best thing that we changed our plans because the weather was fantastic the entire trip.

We started our drive on wednesday morning at 5am! Anna Gordon and I have become bus buddies and we have finally got the perfect system down for these long bus rides. It is funny as look towards the back of the bus most everyone is sleeping sitting up with their mouths wide open and it is so funny that you cant help but take pictures of them. The drive was about 5 hours and we stopped at a small town called Cloverly. As the bus pulled up we couldnt see the town because in order to get there we had to walk down a hill to the beach. It was a cute little cottage town with pebble stone pathways and in order to get into the town you had to pay. There was an artist painting a picture of the ocean and part of the town and it just made the town that much more picturesc.

Tintagel was the next stop on our list and it was a few hours away from Cloverly. Tintagel is on a hill that we had to hike to and there are remnants of a castle on top of this hill that over looks the ocean. They say that this is the castle where King Arthur was concieved. So now I can say that I have been to King Arthurs seat in Scotland and King Arthurs castle! The castle was no longer standing but there were ruins left of it, walls and an alter from the church that was in castle. The wind was so bad because we were so high up and right next to the ocean but it was still a great time. Some of the girls decided to do some Yoga on the cliffs over looking the ocean. That was funny to watch.

As we climbed back off the mountain we had some time left so we walked around in town. There were two things that our proffesors told us to get while we were on the west coast. They were Cornish Pasty's and Cornish clotted cream ice cream. A bunch of us found a cute little ice cream store and bought our first Clotted cream ice cream. They were deliscious!

After a long day of riding on the bus we finally made it to our hostel near Penzance. We were all put into the same groups for rooms that we had before in our last hostel in Bath so that was fun to be with the same girls again. We had made a quick stop at the grocery store before we got to our hostel so that we could buy some dinner. It was a really long day and all of us were pretty tired so we went to bed pretty early that night so that we could be ready for the next day.

That morning we had breakfast at the hostel, nothing fancy just cereal. We then headed out to Landsend. This is where our 6 mile hike started and we really didnt know what to expect. In the beginning our professors told us not to take our rain boots and I thought that they were crazy. I was determined to bring my boots because there was no way that I wanted to have muddy pants and shoes the whole trip. Well in the end I didnt bring my boots on the trip and I was glad because our hike just would not have been the same if I wore my rain boots hiking.

The view was amazing when we started and there isnt a whole lot to say about our hike because it was great the whole time. The beaches looked like tey had never been touched by anyone, there was white sand that looked like pillows next to the water and the ocean water was brigh green and blus and completely clear next to the white sand. I never thought that the beaches in England would have looked like this.

After the hike we were pretty tired I will admit and extremely hungery so we went into the town of Landsend and bought some English candies for the ride to the Eden Project (Our next destination).

In the beginning we were given two groups of travel that we could join. One group would be going to the town of St. Ives and the other to what is called "The Eden Project." I chose the Eden one. It is a project where they are trying to collect every type of plant in the world. Obviously they are just starting off but they have a large number of plants so far. The green houses are in these huge biomes and there are two of them. One biome is for Meditteranian plants an the other is for Rain forest plants. I was so glad that I chose the Eden project because it was really interesting to see the different things that they have collected and put together. The rain forest actually felt like you were there. They had water falls and banana trees and cocoa plants. It was great for about the first 45 min. and then it got so hot and our clothes started to stick to us. After our trip there we headed back to our hostel and got another great nights sleep.

For our last day some of the students decided to go watch the sun rise on the ocean. We then ot ready for our long drive home. We had one more stop before we headed out and it was to Michaels Mount. The guard at the front told us that the wind was to bad so they closed the path way that led up to the castle on the top of the hill on the island but we could walk on the causeway if we wanted. Michaels Mount is a castle on a island and normally water surrounds it but when the tide is out from 10:30am to 12:30 pm people can just walk to the island on the sand so that is what we did. When we got to the island they had a few little shops that we could go through and we found this dog that was huge and he was just so funny blowing in the wind that we had to take a picture with him. His name was murphy. I bought a really pretty print of Penzance in a shop there and it was about lunch time and I hadnt had a Cornish Pasty yet so we went into this little restaurant and had pasty's. (They are like calzone shaped pot pies)

After our trip to the island we headed back to the bus for a long ride home. My teacher Joe Ostraff has a son named Ethen that sat infront of us on the bus and he entertained us the entire way home. One of the girls on the bus, Tori got sick and had to lay on the floor for a while because she was so motion sick. The drive home was long and we were ready to be home in the end. It loved every minute of our trip though!

Weekend trip to Stonehendge and more!

3/15/08
WOW! This week has been filled to the max with sitting on a bus and site seeing to absolutely everywhere. We started our trip with breakfast at 7am and I was on kitchen crew so I had to help clean up before we headed out to the bus. We pre-made lunches and I made two sandwiches this time because I had no idea if we would be stopping for dinner. Most of the other people had that same idea in mind. So after we packed our lunches we headed out to the bus. Anna Gordon and I sat together. This was great because the majority of the time on the bus we fell asleep and we were able to sleep on each other during the ride. The only complaint that I had about our bus ride was that the driver made a comment for everything that we passed and the speakers were so loud that you couldn't block him out with music on your head phones. Alot of the girls started quote books on the bus for the comments that he would say because he was so random with what he said. One of the things that he said was "We as humans do not own the road... the ponies do, so please stay out of their way." How random is that. It had nothing to do with what we were looking at out side. But that is how the entire drive was.

We started the trip with a 2 hour drive to Bath. This is where the Roman Baths were and we got to take an audio tour through them. They even sold warm Bath water for you to drink. After the tour we went to this milk shake shop called "Shake-Away" They are so good, I got a hot chocolate and they even served hot milkshakes. It was just a fun treat to get before we had to get back on the bus for another two hours.

After another 2 hours we went to the Moor (Large rock). It looked exactly like it would have been off of Lord of the Rings.

There were also these wild ponies when we got off and we took a bunch of pictures with them. One of them charged after my friend Anna when she went to take a picture with it, the ears pinned back and it started chasing after. I have never seen her so scared for her life. The view was amazing from the top and it was a great time for us to stretch our legs before we headed to Exeter where our hostel was.

Well I can now say that I have had my first taste of Alcohol. Yes I know what you are all thinking. Well it was exactly that. We checked in and then we ordered pizza. My professors told the guy at the hostel that they wanted to order drinks but Non Alcoholic. So when the drinks came out there was a bunch of orange soda and lemonade and I got the elder flower. But before I got the elder flower I got the orange soda. On the front of the bottle it said that it contained Alcohol in extremely fine print and it was so funny because most of our group had already finished theirs. My professors about died and tried to get everyone to stop drinking. After we got Pizza we went back to our room and we all talked for a long time and went to sleep because we still had a big day ahead of us for the next day. It was really hard to sleep that night also because the heater was up on high and we couldn't figure out how to turn it down so we opened the window and it cooled down a little but it was miserable at first.

For breakfast at the hostel we had a traditional English breakfast with eggs toast sausage baked beans and croissants. Then they had cereals and stuff like that. We got on the bus and had a two hour drive to Stourhead. It was the most beautiful place I have ever been too. If you all want to have a really good look at how pretty it is. Watch Pride and Prejudice and watch the scene where Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth (Kiera Knightly) are fighting and it is raining. They are in a big pavilion. YES, that is exactly where I went! It was amazing and it was just fun because we got to walk around the lake and take tons of pictures. Anna and I met this older couple taking a stroll through the garden and they told us that they lived in a cottage just up the road and they loved living there. We were really sad to leave there because that was probably one of the funnest places that we have been the entire trip.

Stone Hendge was the next stop on our list and it was about 2 hours away from that. I thought that it would be allot bigger then it really is but it was still a cool experience to see. They have it roped off so we weren't able to go very close to the rocks but we still got some really cool pictures of it.

On the way home we made a stop to Salisburry Cathedral. It was huge and we were able to take a tour inside. It was a really quick stop because we had to get home before dark so after that we got back on the bus for another 2 hour ride home. The trip was so fun and I am so glad that we went.

A Week of Plays!

3/14/08

Sorry it has been so long since I have put anything up on my blog. I wanted to wait until I had more pictures to put up for everyone.

The first thing that I went to see this last week was "The Sound of Music." We were originally going to see Phantom of the Opera but the place that we were going to get tickets at sold them for way out of our price range so as a back up plan we went to the theater for the Sound of Music and we got tickets for that night.The girls that I went with were Tori, Andrea and Amanda. The theater is at a place called Covet Garden and it is this fun square with shops and these Chinese lanterns hanging from buildings. The play was amazing especially because we got seats on the 5th row from the stage and the kids that were in it had the most amazing voices. Marie did an excellent job as well.

The next day there was going to be a single adults dance and a bunch of girls here at the center were planning on doing that for our Friday night. I personally wasn't in the mood to go to a dance and so some of the other girls and I went to this play called "Mouse trap" It is the longest running play in London and we got our tickets for a really cheap price. We went to the Box Office to get the tickets which was the biggest mess ever because the theater is not where it should be on the map. They changed location and so we went all over London looking for this place and we were all a little grumpy by the time we got there. We bought the cheapest tickets that they had which was on the back row but when we got there we moved up because alot of the seats weren't filled. The play is about this couple that opens a hotel and there is a huge snow storm and they hear on the Radio that there is a murderer out and they find out that the murderer is in their hotel. So it is a "who done it" kind of play. I really enjoyed it and it was fun to see an original London play.

Well this week we ran into kind of a predicament. The Wednesday we were suppose to go to the west coast of England (Penzance) and this past Monday we had a hurricane and it completely covered the town in water so our trip was canceled. We are now moving that trip to next week and going to Stone henge this Friday and Saturday. I am excited that we are still going dont get me wrong there is just one problem though. The young women in my ward have been planning a trip out to London from Mitcham for next Friday, but we cant do it any more because our trip was moved. The girls have been planning on it for a long time and now we are going to have to change the date for them to come out again. Its just kind of a pain.

This week I have Kitchen duty, its actually really fun. We have been listening to the sound track to "Wicked" and "Hairspray" while we clean and we will sing at the top of our lungs and everyone can hear us. Its pretty funny. I think that we have been the fastest group at Kitchen clean up, seriously. We are SO FAST!

Meg, Betsy and I have been talking the past few days about how we want to go see the play "Grease." So today we went to get tickets 1 hour before the show started and we were right in the middle on the bottom about 5-7 rows from the stage! It was so fun because after we got pictures with Danny and Sandy. Rocky did my make up again for the play, she is the best! I love it because I will go upstairs and ask her to do it and she will know what she wants to do before I even tell her. This time I wanted to go a little crazier with my make up because it was Grease that I was going to and so she put gold eye shadow on me and it looked so cool. The guy in the picture with me is Danny from the play and I even got a picture with me touching his hair! Meg and I wore almost the same outfit, our red and black were swapped. We had a blast tonight but now I am really tired and we have a really big trip tomorrow to Stone Henge so I will post pictures of that when I get home!

Also I saw the movie "The Other Boleyn Girl" and we were really hating life after that movie. It wasn't very uplifting to say the least so I wouldn't recommend it.

Tower of London and More!

As a class assignment for my Criminology class we went on the "Jack the Ripper" tour. It started around 7pm at night so it would give the tour a different feeling. We learned about how and why people think that he killed the prostitutes. It wasn't so much "scary" it was more disturbing. I didn't really know the story before but the tour guide took us to every single place where the killings took place and he described everything in detail but he talked allot about what London was like during that time. He told us that the London wall would separate the poor and the wealthy and how the people that would have children on the poor side of the wall would only survive until they were 5 years old because the water was so bad and hygiene was horrible with people just going to the bathroom any where because they didn't have a sewage system. These people lived in complete squalor. Any way allot of the ways that women would even be able to even feed them selves was through prostitution and they would sleep in shelter things for 2 pence a night. They would sleep with a rope strung across the wall and the would drape their arms over the rope and sleep standing up. (sounds comfortable huh) We also learned that Jack the Ripper was just a name that one of the journalist gave him during that time. No body really knows who he was or what happened to him. It will be a mystery forever.

The trip today started at 9am, when we had to meet in the class room to get our tickets for the Tower of London Tour. Joe Ostraff (my professor) gave us each a ticket and told us that we had till' 1:30pm to meet them in Greenwich at the Prime meridian line. This is where we were planning on taking our group picture.

We started our journey getting on the tube at Notting hill gate tube station and going to Tower Hill Station. As you exit the station there is an incredible view of the tower of London. We tagged onto one of the groups inside the tower where a Beef Eater showed us around. He took us to a church in the tower where Anne and Kathrine are buried (Henry the 8Th's wives). He also told us that there are 125 people that live in the tower. The man giving us the tour said that he raised all of his children in the tower. He also said that it was a great way to raise a teenage because at 10pm they lock up the tower and have a key ceremony. After the tour we went into the tower where the crown jewels are, and it was amazing! The doors into the room are huge bullet proof doors and there was just a ton of stuff (Like the Largest cut diamond!) And most all of the crowns from previous kings and queens. We then moved on to see the Torture instruments of Spain! I thought it was going to be allot more intense then it actually was but I still cant imagine having my thumbs in screws...ouch!

We were ready to go to Greenwich around 12pm and look at some of the shops. This is a small town and it is a long walk through a park and up a hill to get to the Meridian Line so we thought that we would get a head start. When we first got there, we were starving so we found this little organic sandwich shop and I ordered a smoke salmon sandwich...after Alaska I never thought that I would eat fish again but I decided that I should give it another chance. I mean it has been a few months since I have ripped the guts out of a salmon. Well I should have gone with my instincts. They brought me raw fish with no smoked brine on it. One look at that sandwich and I said to my self "There is no way that I am going to eat that, I refuse!" So I took my plate back to the manager and told her that I mis understood that it was going to be raw fish, and so she replaced it with a tuna sandwich. It wasn't the best I have had either considering that it was 75% olives and I don't eat those either. So I had to pick them off. I am not a picky eater but there are 2 things that I absolutely will not eat, raw fish and olives. I got both of those for lunch that day.

We made it just in time to the Meridian line and the view was incredible! You could see London from way up high and I hadn't done that yet. We took allot of pictures and walked around in this astronomy center before we left for home. It was a good way to end our day.

Kent Coutryside Hike!

3/1/08

The week after I had arrived in London the stake President of Hyde park came to speak to the students here at the center. This is when we were assigned to our wards and given callings. While he was speaking to us he told us of a hike that we would be able to participate in not to far into the future of our stay here in London. We thought that we still had a long time before the hike seeing as that it would have been 2 months from the time that he spoke to us...well it has been two months since I have been here and the hike finally arrived.

Some of us weren't sure if we wanted to do it because it was 9 miles long, but he had told us that it would be through the country side in Kent England. Also we would have to wake up at 6am which didn't sound very fun. I wanted to be able to experience everything I could in England so I woke up at the crack of dawn and took a cold shower (the heater is still broken). We had breakfast from 7-8am and we left at 7:45am for the train station. It was about an hour and a half train ride outside of London and the scenery on the way was incredible, rolling green hills!

When we arrived we started out the walk at this church and we stopped and took some pictures. The entire hike I could never justify in pictures because it was absolutely breathe taking. We walked passed a river with ducks swimming it it and there were green vines hanging from the trees. We also saw alot of people taking "strolls" through the country side on their horses. There was a little cottage that we stopped at that sold frozen fruit. This store was in the middle of no where and they had the cutest little tea sets and lots of fresh, frozen and dried fruit. I bought a tea set there. I couldn't believe it because the price was amazing for it, the only problem is that that I was hiking...You will be happy to know that I made it home with the entire tea set not broken. We had to walk through this little town to get to the train and every house that we passed had a family name and then the word cottage after it, so for example (Neubert cottage). The town was so old and cute. I loved the walk and I am so glad that I went because it was beautiful!We also stopped at this old castle in the town, most of it was torn down but the outside walls were still up so we had a really nice lunch in the middle of it. The wind started to pick up and we got kind of cold towards the end so we left and continued our walk around the country side.