Bath and Stonehenge were great, of course, but I've been up to other things since then!
Last Thursday (the day after our Day Trip around the country) we had class like normal, and a bunch of us ventured off to finish the rest of our required 'walk around Londinium' (the old city of London). If you'd like to take a closer look at my lovely picture discovery of the walks, go to: talyn-london.blogspot.com
That night we got a little dolled up (at least I did) to go to a performance called 39 Steps. It was a mystery, extremely hilarious, and four actors played all the characters. A-MA-ZING. Especially considering that there were probably 40 characters in the play. SO FUNNY. I was laughing so hard! After the performance, we went hunting for cupcakes. No dice. Every place we looked that had them was closed. We settled on getting a treat from Tesco (a grocery type store) and didn't even end up getting anything..but we only figured that out after we'd touched just about everything on the shelves. Brilliant.
Thursday was the day we had the tour of the Houses of Parliament (where Big Ben is). Wow. It was absolutely beautiful--and we found out the Queen is coming on December 3rd! YAY! We're going to go see her riding down the street. After that awesome tour we went on another required walk (see 'Bridges Along the Thames' at previously mentioned blog), and went to the Nationally Gallery (of art. Mostly paintings).
Saturday was my study day. I did a bunch of reading and homework and it felt really nice. I'm trying not to do homework on Sundays, so it was my day to catch up and relax for a couple hours. Ever since we got here it's been 'GO GO GO', and my body needed a break. Especially because I knew I was starting to get sick, and by the time I woke up Saturday morning, I was. By Saturday night I was feeling very accomplished, and my health felt much better, so we went to the Thames Festival! Yay for the river! Most of the venders were for food items, and we were meeting up with a bunch of other people for dinner later, so we didn't stick around long. Just long enough to watch this (very crude, larger) Canadian do a Houdini escape trick. It took him forever to get around to it! And when he finally did, he did it inside a huge Santa-like bag, so we couldn't even see. But he did get out of all the chains, locks, and hand-cuffs...more than that, too! He popped out in his underwear and a pink tutu! Not cute.
We then made our way to Trafalgar Square to meet up, eat dinner, and head to a Vivaldi Symphony Concert (The Four Seasons!). My pasta at 'The Italian Restaurant' (they're very original around here) was fantastic, and the concert would have been better if it was an hour shorter and we could actually see the musicians. No such luck. But it was very beautiful--and in a beautiful church (St. Martin-in-the-fields).
Sunday was chill, but not until after church. It took about an hour and a half to get there (including the tube, bus, and walking), and the members are super hard to understand. They're mostly African and English is not their first language. It took a lot of focus, but we got through it. First was RS, then Sunday School, and finally, Sacrament Meeting. It was a bit odd (not like Utah at all), but the members were very friendly. I'm just excited to have a calling! I would LOVE to be in primary. The little black kids are absolutely adorable! When we (Sabrina, Emilee, Sara, and I) first got there, a little girl saw us through a window, ran to open the door for us and kept saying, 'welcome! welcome!' We have to go early to meet with the bishop so he can dish us out and 'put us to work' (as he says). Today we left at 830 and got back after 230. Next Sunday we have to go 20 minutes early and stay later for a 'Munch and Mingle'. I guess a pair of couple missionaries is going home, so it's in their honor. It should be an adventure. Maybe I'll learn AFRICAN! Unfortunately, zero hot British accents in my ward. Durn!
When we got home I was totally beat! I had some food, attempted to read, and totally crashed. For a couple hours. haha
The rest of the evening was very lax. A gaggle of us played Mafia in the servery, and the night ended with a couple intense games of California Speed (and normal speed) with Emilee. Way fun!
Yesterday I still felt like I had bunches to do. We had classes until pretty late, I did homework, and around 3 or so we went to get gelato down the street. A very long way down the street...
It was worth it though. The hazelnut was to DIE FOR. We naturally had to stop at Tesco for some snacks for our trip, and then the ATM. I spent the rest of the night finishing up the thirty-some pages of Shakespeare reading...
Today class felt like an eternity. UGH. But I have this intense urge (again) to read Rebecca. Tracy gave a presentation on it in my British Mystery class today, and it reminded me how badly I wanted to read it before I left! I started, but never finished. Shoot. After lunch I went to Primark (the most amazing and cheap store) with Alex, Jordyn, and Megan. On my way out the door I ran into Emilee and told her my theory about my belt falling out of my purse after I had to change into dress pants for Vivaldi. She so kindly added that there was a belt under her chair at 'The Italian Restaurant'. HA! BOO! At least it was where I thought it was.
My other goal was to find a light jacket. SCORE! Found both. Two jackets and a belt for 13 pounds-aka-23 dollars! YES! I love them! When we got home we got a bunch of people together in our room and read A Midsummer Night's Dream with parts. We had dinner (chicken cordon bleu) and finished the play and here I am!
I have a couple papers to write and bunches of pages to read...
We're headed to 'The West' tomorrow morning super early, and I have to finish a handful of things before I go to bed early. I'll do my best to upload pictures.
G'night.
-T
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