France in a nutshell.

So this past week I went to France. And I adored it. I ate amazing food, saw some of my very favorite artwork, and went to places I've always wanted to go to.

So here is a summarized version of the busiest week of my life. Due to the fact that my computer is currently struggling, I won't be able to post pictures for a while. So some of you probably won't read this post, because you're the kind of person that scans the text part of a blog and is only really looking to see the pictures (guilty.) But I'm writing it anyways, because I mostly just do this for my mama, and I know she loves me and my blog no matter what. So here you go!

Food I Ate:

• 5 croissants
• 4 crepes (1 ham and cheese, 1 egg, ham, and cheese, 1 sugar and butter, and 1 nutella and whipped cream.)
• 3 diet cokes (curse the Europeans and their lack of Dr. Pepper)
• 2 slices of pizza
• 2 white chocolate magnum bars
• 2 ham and cheese baguettes
• 1 scoop of caramel and pecan gelato
• 1 gyro and fries
• 1 steak and fries (I don't recommend getting steak in France)
• 1 bag on strawberry bonbons

If you're reading this and thinking that I must have spent way too much money on food, you're right.

Places I Went:

• Vimy and Compiegre (war sites)
• Chartes Cathedral
• The Palace of Versailles
• The town of Versailles (adorable.)
• Notre Dame Cathedral
• Sainte-Chapelle--the walls are almost completely made out of stained glass windows. So blessed to see this on a sunny day.
• L'Orangerie--a museum devoted to works by Monet
• Jardin des Tuileres--the gardens of the Louvre
• Musee D'Orsay
• The Eiffel Tower
• The Louvre
• Arc de Triomphe
• The Moulin Rouge
• Musee Rodin--an entire museum devoted to my favorite sculptor. So happy.
• Madeline Cathedral
• The Opera House--the inspiration for Phantom of the Opera. Also where the movie was filmed.
• The Pompidou--my new favorite modern art museum.
• Amiens Cathedral
• Lots of WWI sites--Albert, La Boiselle, Beaumont-Hamel, Thiepval, and Serre.

Things I Saw:

• The Hall of Mirrors
• Marie Antoinette's bedroom
• Paintings by all my favorites--Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Delacriox
• The Mona Lisa
• Some of my favorite sculptures--The Kiss, Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo
• The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower
• The Eiffel Tower sparkling (every hour, on the hour)
• Missionaries
• A women getting pick-pocketed
• My fill of stained glass windows
• The Louis Vuitton store
• A break dance circle
• Cemetaries filled with soldiers from both world wars
• A line of over 100 British taxis transporting children with terminal illnesses to Disney France. The taxi drivers do it annually, and pay for it themselves. This was one of my favorite things to see.

Things I did:

• Walked through trenches of the wars
• Took a ferry across the English Channel
• Climbed 43 stories to the second level of the Eiffel Tower, and then rode an elevator to the top.
• Posed for lots of pictures with old Asian men
• Ran through the Louvre
• Danced on top of the Arc de Triomphe
• Broke a bottle of perfume in Sephora (actually, Devri broke it. But I witnessed it.)
• Took a boat ride down the Seine River
• Listened to Mass at Notre Dame

What I loved:

• Hearing everyone around me speaking French
• Replying to everything with bonjour, merci, and au revior!
• Sleeping on the bus rides
• The French countryside
• The fact that no matter where you are in Paris, you can find a pastry shop within a five minute walk
• The sunny, warm weather
• Trying to find the Eiffel Tower every night on the hour so we could see it sparkling
• All the lovers having picnics and dancing by the Seine River at night
• Waking up every morning and realizing that I was in France.

I loved every  minute of this trip. Even though France is dirty, the men are creepy, the people smell, and there is an extremely high likelihood of getting pick-pocketed, you really can't help but love the place. Even though I was so grateful to get back to my clean, quiet London, France will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Through England on a Coach.

This week was another super busy one! But all of the weeks here are busy and crazy, and I don’t think it’s ever going to be any different…which I’m perfectly fine with.

Last Saturday it was our roomie Lisa’s birthday, so we decided to hit up Portobello Road in the morning (amazing shopping), Les Mis during the day (always amazing), and then Nando’s for dinner (really, really yummy food). As many times as I have seen Les Mis, listened to the soundtrack, and read the book, I will always love it and will always be so excited to see at the theater. It was fabulous.

Wednesday was our second day trip, so we set off early in the morning for the two hour bus ride to Bodium Castle, which is beautiful, surrounded by a moat, and is exactly what every little girl imagines a castle to look like. The best part was the view from the top…if only Utah could ever get this green.

Our next stop was Bateman’s, which was Rudyard Kipling’s house—author of The Jungle Book, along with many other books and poems that I am sure I’ll be required to read sometime  in the future. His “modest home” was actually quite large, complete with an amazing library and surrounded by gorgeous gardens.

We're so good at hand stands.

Next we made our way to Battle Abbey, where the Battle of Hastings took place. Once again, why is Utah so incapable of being so green?

Our last stop was Monk’s House, which was the summer home of the author Virginia Woolf, whom I don’t particularly love, and whose house really wasn’t all that impressive. So I’m ashamed to say that I (along with several friends) decided to head back to the bus early. I know, I’m lame. So lame that I don’t even have any pictures for this one.

Today was our field trip to the Tower of London, which is where both Lady Jane Grey and Anne Boleyn were executed, along with lots of other important people. It’s also where you can go to find the crown jewels, the armory, and the torture devices. Needless to say, we spent plenty of time wandering around there.

So immature, but we loved this guy. Look closely.

Tower Bridge

And then we made our way to Borough Market…which is amazing. It’s stall after stall of different kinds of food from all over the world, and everyone passes out samples. It’s like Costco, but fun! It’s completely chaotic and is packed with people eating and yelling at you to try their food. I decided to go with a meat pie, and will be going back next week for some curry and one of the many options of pastries. I love this place.

And now we’re all sitting in our beds, blogging, emailing, and writing papers. Only two more days until France!  Au revoir!

Castles, Cathedrals, and Canterbury

The last few days here have been soooo busy but so much fun. We’ve seen so many incredible things and my love for this place really does grow every single day. The beauty of some of these places is just completely breathtaking, and it’s hard to even comprehend the brilliance of them. I honestly don’t like to take pictures because they just don’t do the beauty of these monuments justice. They are so much more amazing in both beauty and feeling when you are actually in the place. But of course I take pictures anyway…just for you guys (mom). Here’s a quick recap!

 

St. Paul’s Cathedral. My favorite place so far. Absolutely gorgeous inside…but no pictures allowed. Other than this fabulous one:

Anyone recognize these? Take away the odd contemporary art piece at the bottom, and we have the stairs used both in the opening scene of Sherlock Holmes, and the staircase leading up to Dumbledore’s office in Harry Potter (you can imagine how happy this made me.)

This is at the top of St. Paul’s. We climbed a tiny rickety spiral staircase of 531 steps to get there. Yes, I am terrified of heights. Loved every minute of it…

The British Library. A picture with our cute lunch sacks from Apostrophe. While making this pose, my English teacher, Professor Bird, yelled at me to “stop looking so sexy!” Sorry, Penny.

Outside of the Banqueting House, the first Classical building in England. Up until that point, everything was made out of wood. This is the site where Kind James I was executed. It is also the site where I wish I could have my wedding reception.

Of course, we had to stop for some pictures with Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

Yesterday we had our first day trip. First, we made our way to Dover Castle, where we explored the castle itself, along with underground tunnels that were used in secret during WWII. The majority of the operations run here were performed by women.

Next, we stopped at St. Martin’s church, which may have been my favorite stop yet. It was the first Christian church in England, established when Queen Bertha came from France to marry King Ethelbert. She brought along with her a small party of Christians, and they built and worshiped in the exact building that we stood in today. Even though it’s just a plain little church, I loved being able to sit in a building that has so much history, and means so much to the people here.

And then Canterbury Cathedral. The perfect example of a place where pictures just don’t do it justice, but I took them anyways.

The end. Cheers!

Praise Jesus!

We finally witnessed our first rain storm here in London today! We’ve had beautiful, sunny weather since we arrived, but this afternoon the rain came out of nowhere and hit us hard. It was especially great because not one of us had an umbrella, so we were booking it through the streets, trying to get to the nearest tube station. But other than that today has been fabulous. After classes, we headed out to the British Library for a homework assignment, and I was completely in awe of everything that I saw. The first few items that had me completely giddy were Jane Austen’s writing desk and one of her original notebooks, the original Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and the original Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy—three of my favorite things all in a row! We also saw original works done by Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven, the original Alice in Wonderland, notebooks from Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci, and an entire tribute to the Beatles, complete with the original lyrics to many of their songs, scribbled down on scraps of paper, envelopes, and the backs of birthday cards. I honestly was so happy about it all.

This weekend was jam-packed and crazy, but so much fun. Friday night we ended up going to the YSA stake dance, which to be honest I wasn’t too thrilled about, but in the end I was so glad that I went. It was fun to get out and go dancing with all of the girls, but mostly I loved it because of all the great young church members that we met there. There were so many people there from all over, and they travel so far for these dances each month just so that they can go out and socialize with people with their same standards. One of the girls that we met there, Chloe, traveled five hours on the bus just for the dance! We met so many amazing new people, and I loved everything about it.

Saturday night we went out to dinner at this amazing Thai restaurant right down the street, and then we headed off to a classical concert for a homework assignment. We heard works by Mozart and Bach, and all of the music was so beautiful. But I’ll be honest, after two hours of sitting on a wooden bench in the student section (aka the seats that nobody else will buy because you have absolutely no view of the show), I was ready to be done by the end of it. On our way home we stopped for ice cream, and then stayed up late getting reading done.

St. Martin-in-the-field, where the concert was held.

 But Sunday was probably my very favorite day. I got to go to my new ward, and I was given the calling of a Sunday school teacher for the youth…which is about five kids total. I loved being at church because the people there are all so amazing and have such incredible stories about how the church came into their lives. Their testimonies were so strong and being there listening to them and feeling the Spirit made me feel right at home. It was such a comfort after such a crazy first few days.

Palace Court, the street where we live.

Me and Nikki on  Westminster Bridge

Ok, I am now officially done with the world’s longest blog post. Here are some more pictures from the week for your enjoyment. Cheers!

Mind the Gap

So the first couple of days here have been very successful. Yesterday, we were sent out by our professors to go explore the city and learn how to get around on the tube. First, we made our way to Buckingham Palace, which is huge and beautiful. Sadly, we didn't get to see the changing of the guard, but we're planning on going back Saturday for that.

After that we stopped at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Harrod's, Trafalgar Square, and finally the National Gallery, where I got my fill of Van Gogh's and Degas' before heading home.

Today we started classes! I'm excited about them so far but a little overwhelmed. It's been over four months since I've been in school, and I really started to feel the impact after about three hours of sitting in the same desk. But hopefully it won't take too long for me to get back into the swing of things and the workload won't seem so intense. After classes we made a grocery run, and then decided to set out and find Primark...which is officially the greatest place ever. I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything, but I caved (surprise, surprise) and ended up getting a really adorable skirt that I'm very happy about.

Tonight we had our stake president and the bishop over one of our wards come and talk to us about serving in the church here. Even just talking about the church made me feel so much more at home, and it made me so excited to get to my ward on Sunday and receive my calling.

I'm still loving it here, and I'm excited to really get into the schedule and get a regular routine down. London is beautiful! I'm so blessed to be here.