An Island Off the Bigger Island (Day 34)

Today was a semi-early start, followed by two hours of sleeping on the coach to Portsmouth. Then we took a ferry out into the Channel to today's attraction: the Isle of Wight.

Our first stop was Carisbrooke Castle, where Charles I, King of England, was held for a year pre-execution. Naturally we found the dress-up room, but it was also really fun to climb around the walls and explore a bit. I really liked this one a lot, and am also becoming very well versed in English Heritage Sites. (OK probably only fellow Study Abroad-ers will understand the significance of this).

After Carisbrooke, we went to the Osborne House which is where Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their children stayed during Summers and vacations and such. Finally, this was a place that feels like somewhere where someone could theoretically live and maybe even have kids. Not at all like Blenheim or Versailles.

Once we toured the house, we walked down to the beach and ate ice cream and briefly enjoyed a speck of sun before we had to trek back to the bus and head home. For dinner tonight we went out and got some New York Style Pizza and it was fabulous.

Here's some fab photographs:

Portsmouth from the Ferry

History History blah blah..but Kindal's face though

Isn't Matt a cute little human?

Castles are rad

Look at the view from this Castle though

Why is Matt always photobombing my pics?

CASTLES

Matt is clearly enthused

Queen Victoria's Bath Carriage

Chick Flicks Because Matt (Day 33)

Just another day of class and living and loving life at the London center.
After a lunch of leftovers (and alliteration apparently), I was (as usual) seriously planning on just doing homework and getting ahead on some assignments, but (as usual) spent like an hour chatting with Kim and Kindal and Matt and Lady Benfell in the drawing room, and doing mission prep stuff and playing piano, and generally NOT doing homework until dinnertime. Tonight's entree was Salmon and Rice, which was delicious. After dinner, Matt, Kindal and I went to Sainsbury's to buy Magnum bars and other such scrumptious treats before heading up to the Benfell's flat for a movie night. Of course, while waiting for Kim, we got to hear more stories about the childhood of the Benfell boys, and then turned on the Chick Flick because what else would we watch with Matt?

Ward Conference in Wandsworth (Day 32)

Today in another epic tale of traveling to Church, we actually made it without any major delays, caught an earlier train that normal out of Victoria Station and made it to Wandsworth way earlier than normal. Happiest of days.

Today was Ward Conference, so there was a combined Relief Society/Priesthood/Sunday School meeting during the first half of church. The Bishop asked me to play the piano for that meeting, so I wasn't in Primary today, which was sad because my time with those kids (especially my little Sunbeam) is so limited.

It was quite a different experience from any conference I have ever been in before. The Stake President spoke most of the time, and about half of his "talk" or lesson I suppose, was talking about real legit statistics, the kind that you don't normally hear about. Things like how many more sealed couples there are in the ward compared to the number with a current Temple recommend and specific numbers about how many come on average to Sacrament meeting and classes and whatnot. It was kind of almost chastising and saying that other units are doing better and low numbers should not be an excuse. It really just even more solidified in my mind that the Stake Presidency has lots of concerns about the Wandsworth Common ward. And I have this opportunity still, for two more weeks at least, to have an impact and help and do something for the people of the ward. So I should take this chance to do something.

After the first block we had Sacrament meeting (as per usual). To be honest, I kind of secretly love playing the organ (although I guess if I wanted to keep that secret I probably shouldn't be posting about it on my blog). Today the Stake President actually called me out over the pulpit and said how great it is to have an organist top lay during the meeting...so that was pretty cool.

Once Sacrament was over, the ward had a Mix and Mingle kind of event which they invited us to stay for... so of course we did. First of all: the food. It was a full delicious meal pretty much. Also, Rachel and I talked to an older lad in the ward who told us about how great it is to have us there, and also how much time we still have to live our lives and experience more of the world. It was really sweet and a nice moment for us to have.

Market Day and Nicolas Cage (Day 31)

Today was one of those "wake up at 6 am for absolutely no reason" mornings (does that happen to anyone else?) But it was a great Saturday.

Kinda land I got TESCO breakfast and went to Camden Market, which was SO cool. We actually only spent like 30 minutes there, and over an hour riding the Tube, but it was totally worth it.

We did "homework" with Kim and went to Pizza Hut for dinner (yeah we're Americans...but gotta love that Pizza). It's entirely possible that we also slept for a while in the Drawing Room.

Tonight Sydney opened her mission call (Lima Peru North) and it was super spiritual and I cried a little bit. I am going to be a mess when I get my call.

To finish out our Saturday adventures, we spent a disturbing amount of time tweeting pictures of Nicolas Cage at Matt until he came down to hang out with us, and then we ended up going up to his flat and watching Ghost Rider (one of the best worst movies I have ever seen).

FaceTime-ception

I Stood In Two Hemispheres At Once (Day 30)

Today was a LARGE improvement on yesterday's boring-ness. :)

We left around 9:30 as a group for our day trip to Greenwich (pronounced "Gren-itch"). We traveled by a different means than normal today and took the ferry from Westminster Pier down the Thames to Greenwich. It was hot out, but the ride was way cool.

Tower of London from the Ferry

Tower Bridge from the Ferry

Ferry pictures Ferry pictures

For those of you who are uneducated and uncivilized and don't know anything about Greenwich, here is a crash course: Greenwich is actually a part of London, but it is kind of isolated and a bit away from the main section of the city. There are a lot of cool historical things there and also a lot of really well-known movies have been filmed there. (Examples: Les Miserables, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sense and Sensibility, The Avengers, National Treasure 2, Sherlock Holmes AND MORE).

Watch Les Mis and understand

Yeah they filmed Les Mis here.. I died <3

We had a huge chunk of the day in Greenwich to explore on our own, so Kindal, Kim and I did a whirlwind walking tour to see if we could find exciting things to do. We succeeded.

First we went to the Royal Naval College..Discovery Center. Like for children. But we played with all the interactive things and dressed up in child-size costumes (because let's be honest they totally fit Kindal and I anyway).

Then we did historical things like visited the Painted Hall and the Queen's House (which actually had this terrifying, dark room with baby dolls that felt a tiny bit like a sacrificial room and I am still not totally sure what that was about..)

Painted Hall

Kim and the Queen's House

I bought a cute folding accordion book with the London Royal Palaces because it was cute and don't judge me.

Then we made a stop at the National Maritime Museum because we were starving and they had a cafe... so no, we didn't actually see any of the exhibits... but DANG those Chips (again Americans, remember, FRIES) were good.

Maritime Museum

In the middle of our lunch break, it started dumping rain outside, so naturally we thought that that would be the best time to make the hike uphill to the Royal Observatory. And based on the rules of nature, we got soaked to the bone, but laughed so hard we had to stop and remember how to breathe.

The Queen's House during the storm

I love Kindal. And this picture.

The Royal Observatory was super cool and science-y and all that rad stuff. Kim did blind a snail (and we will never let her live that down) but we learned a lot of fun facts and saw lots of really neat astronomy things..

Oh, and we STOOD ON THE PRIME MERIDIAN. No big deal. Just chilled in two hemispheres at once.

Two Hemispheres. Whoop

Isn't Kim the cutest?

The ride back we had yet another new experience, riding the DLR (Direct light rail or something, I don't really remember what it stands for) which was basically like the overground, and then the Tube ride with a disgusting amount of people. I have never felt so claustrophobic in my life: there were about 4 different languages being spoken by people within a foot of my body, and I don't even want to think about the number of sweaty bodies that came into contact with mine. LESSON: Do NOT take the Central Line on a Friday evening in the middle of July. You WILL regret your decision.

Matt NOT doing a push-up like he was supposed to

But hey, two hemispheres..so I can't really complain :)

I Was Boring Today (Day 29)

Really I was. Of all the days in Europe, this is the one where I did no exciting things. But it was Pioneer Day back in Utah so that's cool.

I woke up, did homework, went to class, wrote a letter, fell asleep until 4 pm (I had some kind of terrifying dreams, which I can't remember but they were trippy). Then Kindal, Matt and I just sat around and talked about life and stuff.

Dinner was pork, green beans and creamed corn and then we (the Fab 4) went out for treats (Oreos and Cadbury McFlurries), watched the second half of National Treasure (beginning our Nicolas Cage obsession) and all of 10 Things I Hate About You and then we talked until almost Midnight (Matt is still not an adult so he has to go to bed early ;P).

And there you have it folks. A boring day in London (well I wasn't bored but it doesn't make for a very exciting blog post. does it?)

French Museums and Lost Tickets (Day 28)

Everyone is bound to have a day where everything goes wrong... it's just a little unfortunate that for us that came on our last day in Paris.
It was a long day. LONG. And really stressful for a while there.
The morning started off good..we ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel and brought our luggage to the Gare du Nord (the main train station) where we stored it while we went to explore the city some more. First stop was the Louvre! We got there probably around 9 or 9:15 and the line to get through without prepaid tickets was insane, but fortunately we had our museum passes, so we just walked right in, no wait, no problem. We definitely tackled the Louvre the right way. We walked around a ton on the top two floors and saw almost no one. And let's take a moment and remember that this is the biggest museum in the WORLD. There was SO MUCH to see. It was absolutely insane. It was also crazy overwhelming, and we only scratched the surface on our short visit. After our hour or so with no crowds, we very quickly hit up the Mona Lisa (and took pictures of the crowd around her) and then saw Michelangelo's "Slave" and the Venus de Milo. Some pretty cool stuff. We finished and headed out around 11:15.

Outside the Louvre

Every wants a picture of Mona

Michaelangelo's "Slave"

Bailey taking a selfie with Venus de Milo

We were already pretty exhausted from walking around for two hours, so we sat outside the Arc de Triomphe du Carousel (not the actual Arc de Triomphe, but a mini model or something) and had a really cool view of the Eiffel Tower that totally looked fake. This picture brings back some not awesome memories because it was here that our luck turned sour.

The mini Arc de Triomphe

Real Skyline... Real Tense Memories

Like I said, we were already super exhausted, so we were trying to plan the next part of the day when Kindal realized that she had lost her train ticket. As in her train ticket for our train back to London. The train that left in 6 hours. And she had lost it in the Louvre. Did I mention that's the biggest museum in the WORLD?? After some debate, we checked the Louvre lost and found and then decided our best bet might be to try to find the Benfells by some miracle and if not, at least to hit a few sights along the way. We walked from the Louvre to the Pompidou, which took a lot longer than we thought it would, and decided while we were there we might as well go inside. The Pompidou was actually really neat! I had no idea what to expect, but it is this super sweet modern art museum and even the building has a neat modern look to it.
We spent about an hour there (no luck finding the Benfells) and then went and got some water and Crepes to eat. We did see the LDS missionaries twice so that was really neat!
Then we took the metro back to the Louvre, but they still hadn't found it. (It should be noted that thanks to our museum passes we never once stood in line waiting to get into the Louvre, which is basically a miracle in itself).
The next hour or so was pretty miserable as we waited for one of the professors to arrive to hopefully sort things out for Kindal. There were no seats so we sat on this metal pole for quite a while. I guess we would have probably been sitting around at that point anyway, because we were just so exhausted, but it was kind of a bummer that our last day in Paris wasn't what we wanted it to be.
Fortunately, Dr. Benfell got it all sorted out for Kindal and we made it through customs and to the train just fine, but there were 6 girls in the group who got stuck with a not very nice customs agent who wouldn't let them through, and they (along with 20 or 30 other passengers) missed the train, and had to take the next one.
I really did love Paris, despite not fun last day experiences, and I am looking forward to returning at some point.
Au Revoir for now!

87 Million Square Feet of Palace Grounds (Day 27)

So I guess I thought that going to Fontainebleau yesterday would be the height of the history nerd in me freaking out....uh I was so very wrong about that.
Today, after a breakfast of crepes and croissants, we took the Paris metro (way sketchier than the London Underground) and then a train outside the city to THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES!! It was seriously one of the coolest things ever.
We didn't actually end up going through the Palace because there were literally THOUSANDS of people in line (see image below) and really there were only a few rooms I wanted to see anyway.

Do you see all those people? THOUSANDS

Instead, we spent about 4 ours exploring a "small" portion of the Royal Garden. I cannot even explain how massive the gardens are.. I mean everyone always says that they are massive, but even with that preparation I was still totally taken aback...massive does not even begin to describe the size of these palace grounds. No wonder the people of France were a little irritated with their monarchs! I could easily have spent days in the gardens alone. PLUS it was SO incredibly beautiful. My mind was completely blown by how awe-inspiring it all was!

Eh just a casual view of the Grand Canal

What? Check out those hedges!

Much Garden, Such Amaze

Look at me being all artsy

How often do you think they have to trim these?!?

I just really like this picture

OK so there's the palace from the back

IT IS SO BIG

Just one of many random classical garden features

More pretty things..

HOW IS THERE STILL MORE TO SEE???

Who takes care of this?!? It is seriously PERFECT!

A little perspective

That pink dot is me. The huge building is the back corner of Versailles

Seriously this is just there randomly in this huge forest-y area.

The Palace. Ummm

More garden features...

After exploring the grounds at Versailles for a while, we decided to hit up some big sights with the rest of our day... after we ate of course.. I had quiche and Creme Brulee..the French are definitely doing something right when it comes to food. Then off to see the sights: First, of course, we walked along the River Seine and saw the Eiffel Tower. It is so beautiful! I did not expect to be so impressed by the metal-work and the overall architecture of this monument!

Seriously isn't this incredible?!

Hey look! Me and the Eiffel Tower!

Then we went to Notre Dame Cathedral. None of us are Catholic, so we had no clue that today was actually the Feast of Mary Magdalene and we happened to get there just in time to hear the last service before the Cathedral closed for the day. That was really neat to be a part of as well!

Notre Dame

There's the island where Notre Dame is

I am kind of bummed that we only have one day left in Paris, because this is such a neat city and there is so much that we won't have time to explore. I guess that just means that I will be back someday!