Northern England Day 1

Well we’re off to Northern England for the week and I am so happy. I can’t believe that after this week I’ll only have 2 weeks left in London. I’m not happy about this. Not happy at all. It’s really quite tragic in fact. I would stay for another 2 months if I could. We got an early start (7:00am) and headed to our first destination.

First Stop: Chatsworth

So for all of you Pride and Prejudice lovers, this is another place to see. It is Mr. Darcy’s house in the new version with. It is Beautiful! It’s a huge house with over 200 acres of incredible gardens. We were able to spend 2 hours there. The house or rather, mansion, was fabulous and so interesting. But nothing can compare the gardens. BREATHTAKING! We took lots and lots of pictures and enjoyed walking around in nature. Emily, Amanda, and I explored as much as we could with the little time we had. We ran through fields of grass, played in the fountain/stream, and explored the flowers and tunnels, and then headed back to the bus. Why don’t people still build this way? Obviously not the size, but just the beautiful architecture and the lines are so beautiful. And gardens? What happened to them? I’m going to have a garden when I have a house of my own someday.

Amazing entrance!

That violin is painted on. I guess it's very famous because it looks so real! And believe me... I thought it was real until they told us it wasn't. Crazy!

They had a dress up room we all had a great time in! So many fun outfits!

I loved the library.

This was incredible!

Manda and me

Beautiful!

Gardens

Back of the house

Baby ducks were everywhere!

So many gardens to walk through! Acres and acres! I wish I could have walked all of them!

Emily and me

Playing in the fountain

Next Stop: Bronte Sister’s house

We spent about an hour here going through their house. I learned so much about them and their background. It was very interesting. The town they lived in is adorable! I wish I had an entire day to explore and see all of the fun houses and shops. As I was walking to the Bronte house, I passed the most amazing cemetery I have ever seen. The grass and trees were overgrown and wild like which added to the uniqueness of each headstone. The sun was shining so brightly and you could see its rays shining through the tree braches highlighting the graves, while casting interesting shadows on the ground. The fact it had just rained only added to the beauty. The air smelled so fresh and there were dewdrops on the grass and leaves. It was one of the most picturesque scenes I have ever seen. I really enjoy cemeteries. Especially ones like these. I think they are beautiful and peaceful. I always stop when I see a cemetery and look around while pondering. It’s a moment of reflection for me. I wish I could have spent more time there. Another day perhaps....another day.

Third Stop: Preston Temple

Goodness, just walking on the Temple grounds gives you a wonderful feeling of peace. The England MTC is also there so that was really neat to see. I’m still planning on serving a mission. The opportunity seems to come and go but I hope I do whether single or with my husband. I can’t wait! Maybe I will go here and go to this MTC! I would love it.

Forth and Final Stop: Ambleside!!!

This is officially my favorite place. It is in the Lake District and the hostel we’re staying in is right on a lake. It reminds me of Austria. I guess I don’t have to be too jealous that my family is in Mondee because this is pretty close. The lake is gorgeous and the green mountains around are breathtaking. I sat on a bench right on the shore and wrote in my journal while thinking about if I were to ever become an Author, I would come here for inspiration. I don’t know what I want to write about, but all I want to do is start writing a book at this very moment. Is that weird that nature has that effect on me? Maybe I will become a write someday. I’m not a good writer but the thought of writing sounds so wonderful to me. As the sun set I watched the colors ripple on the water as the boats came in. Nothing could have made me happier at that moment. God has given us such a beautiful world to live in. Can’t wait to explore tomorrow! :)

Today I went to my little ward where I taught primary, played the piano for singing time, played the piano for the musical number in sacrament meeting and lead the music, and gave a talk. I spoke on being prepared to meet Christ. I was so grateful to speak in church and to have this specific topic. I learned so much by preparing for it and my own personal testimony grew. We never know when the time will come that we will be taken from this earthly life and we must be ready at all times. Sometimes it scares me, but when I realize that as long as I’m living righteously I have no need to fear the wonderful moment I am reunited with my heavenly father. My main point was to try and work on yourself little by little to better yourself each day. It is overwhelming to think about how many things I need to fix. Which is why we need to take it one step at a time. Fix one problem and work on another. It’s like the story my BYU teacher once told me….Imagine you open a door to a hallway and there is a huge monster in your way. You know there is an amazing reward at the end of the hallway and you know you’ll do anything to get to it. So you fight the monster with courage. Sometimes you get knocked down. But eventually you beat the monster and it leaves. Then you see that there are 2 monsters behind it that are smaller. You fight them until they leave and you see there are 4 smaller monsters behind the 2. You see, there are always more things we can work on but we know that we can beat through each of these bad habits or past sins by moving forward and letting go of these burdens that hinder our progression. The most important thing to remember is that we are never alone in our fight. Christ, our redeemer, is there with us fighting each of out little monsters helping us to return to him and our Heavenly Father. I’m so grateful for Jesus Christ who helps me every single day as I try to be better and kinder and reach for that reward at the end of the hallway.

It was a busy day, but I absolutely loved every minute of it. The members here are so amazing. They are so strong and such good examples. Every Sunday my testimony grows from these strong, wonderful people. I love the kids I teach. Here are a couple pictures of them:

After church my friend Megan and I went to the Imperial War Museum. Gosh, this was a very solemn experience. They have a Holocaust exhibit that just tarred at my heart. So many awful things happened. I must admit I did shed a couple of tears while reading some of the stories and seeing some of the pictures. It amazes me to see what God’s children have done to one another. It is awful. I can’t imagine how Heavenly Father must feel when these awful things are happening to His children by His children. Even though the experience in the museum was not too pleasant I am glad I went. They also have life-size (and life smelling) trenches under the museum you can go through to get a sense of how it was. It stunk so bad I couldn’t breathe. Yuck.

Well today some girls, Clark, and I went to the London Temple and did baptisms. What a great experience. We took a train ride and then a cab ride with a very funny man and when we finally made it to the temple we had a lovely time admiring the temple grounds. I met a very interesting girl from Italy in the waiting room. We talked about Italy, missions, and life in America. It was hard to communicate seeing as she didn’t speak much English, and I don’t speak Italian but we made it work. We had to wait a little bit so the Temple worker came in and suggested that we sing hymns to pass the time. Of course we jumped at the opportunity to do this. It was a wonderful experience to sing hymns in the temple with people from all around the world. Music really does unite people in ways speaking never can.

After baptisms, and walking the temple grounds again, we headed on the trek back to the Center. We spent most of the rest of the day walking around London. My favorite thing to do. Exploring little streets and stores will never get old or boring. We then went to the Opera house and saw the ballet Swan Lake. Of course that was amazing!! I loved it. Somehow the girls really, looked like beautiful, graceful swans. I was amazed. I still wish I was a dancer. That is something I would give anything to do. But alas I am not graceful and I have no talent in that area. Oh well. I guess I should count my blessings. At least I can enjoy ballets like this… in LONDON!

Well I do miss my family but it’s back to the normal schedule. Today is Friday and we have our weekly field trip in London Town. Today we went to Westminster Abbey. (But this is the first time I have been able to actually go inside!) It was so wonderful to be able to go inside and go on an extensive phone tour and see the incredible beauty in this Abbey. I separated myself from the majority of the group and did the little phone tour by myself. It was more special that way, I think. At the end I sat on a bench and just stared at the beauty while I thought about my life. I feel so grateful for this summer. Everything about it is changing me and I feel so blessed. It is moments like these I want to always remember.

Tonight we had an adventure, however, with a little mouse we named tiny. It was the cutest, tiniest little creature I have ever seen! Unfortunately we met through a sticky mousetrap. It was 3 in the morning and Emily and I had been up late chatting, (like usual) when we heard little squeaks. We looked behind the dresser and found this little guy stuck on the trap. We knew we had mice, but we were not prepared for its cuteness. So what did we do? We got the trap, a plastic bag, went outside, pulled it off, and let it go. So funny. What girls we are. We couldn’t kill such an adorable animal. We thought it best not to tell our housekeeper. ;)

Today after class I met up with my fam bam on Oxford street. We ate sandwiches at a café and then I took them to the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster, National Gallery, and Trafalgar Square. Sight seeing will never get old to me. I love it so much. The world is an amazing place with so many places to explore.

Travel, travel, travel. It’s all I want to do. I didn’t have nearly enough time with my family as I had wanted but after a couple hours I had to make my way back to the London center. Our teachers got us tickets to see War Horse. Which I can’t complain it really was incredible. Life changing in fact. It is about a young boy who lies about his age and enters the army during WWII. So sad. One of my teachers, Professor Tate, knows Mackenna from BYU and he had an extra ticket so he told me to give it to her. I was so happy to have her come along with me. We both cried (mostly mackenna. The play really touched her because she has studied a lot about WWII. Love her) It was very sweet. After we met up with the rest of my family and had a painful goodbye on the front steps of the London center. It was a lot sadder than I had thought it would be. I will see them again soon but it was just so good to be with them for these past coupe of days. I love them so much and I am so thankful I have each one of them in my life. They means the world to me.

So many adventures in one day

Today was lovely! Besides the fact that I had to leave my family for the whole entire day, I did in fact have great adventures today. Our first stop was the Sandham Memorial Chapel where we saw the art work of Stanley Spencer which was inspired by his experiences in WWI. That was incredible. I feel so lucky to have been able to see and experience these historical sites in real life. Once in a life time experience.

Here are some of the paintings inside the memorial.

Amazing.

Then we went to Jane Austen’s home. Which was, of course, very fun for me. I love Jane Austen. Her home was adorable but I particularly loved her Garden. I am very partial to quaint Gardens. I hope to have one of my own someday. We all had a good time taking pictures and messing around. Poor Clark (The only boy on our study abroad) had to live through many fake engagement pictures. So silly. Sometimes I wish I were born in the 1800s. Life back then was much simpler. I often imagine what it would be like and when I read books written by Authors like Jane Austen I feel as though I can live a little bit of that life style through my imagination. Thank you Jane Austen for the wonderful Novels that you provided for the entertainment of millions.

My English class is all all about Jane Austen. We study her stories, characters, time period, and style of writing. It is so much fun! Our last assignment was to compare Elizabeth Bennett to Emma Woodhouse. We have to go through the book and find specific examples to prove how they are similar or how they are different depending on which side we were assigned too. It really is quite delightful and makes for a fun homework adventure. What better homework could you have than to read books like Emma and Persuasion. The class is not easy by any means. Finding concrete evidence for some of the assignments take so much time... I mean think about it. We have to have actual passages that can prove our point so we have to pretty much go through each book every assignment page by page. It's time consuming but entertaining none the less. We had to make a Jane Austen blog for our class where we would match quotes from the book to pictures we have taken on this trip. That was a fun project as well.

Here are a couple posts from my Jane Austen Blog:

"It did not appear to her that life could supply any greater felicity" -Northanger Abbey

"But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them..." :) -Pride and Prejudice

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not in my nature.' -Northanger Abbey

"... for a fine Sunday in Bath empties evert house of its inhabitants, and all the world appears on such an occasion to walk about and tell their acquaintance what a charming day it is."

Anyways....back to business...

Our next stop was the Salisbury Cathedral.

Oh first, I should warn you that I have an obsession with doors. Is that weird? Maybe.

Here are a few of my favorite from today.

And here are some pictures of this gorgeous cathedral:

Next Stop: Stone Hedge!! Oh yes, all of us girls were excited to see this. I saw Stone Hedge when I was younger but it had been so long so of course it was like seeing it for the first time. We were all in such a happy mood so we ran around in the grass and wind and took lots of fun, silly pictures. This place is amazing. Historians still don’t know for sure what it really is but each rock weighs several tons. What? How did they get them there? Beats me. Some think that they put it together for religious purposes. Whatever the reason, it is a wonderful little piece of History that we all get to enjoy today.

I really love the girls on my study abroad. We have such a good time together. Adventures like these are always more fun when in the company of good friends.

L to R: Whitney Robinson, Amanda Allred, Emily Roberts, and I

I got home just in time to catch a tube and RUN and I mean RUN through the streets of London to meet up with my family at the Broadway show, Legally Blonde. I got there just in time. It was hilarious. I wouldn’t recommend it as the top show I have seen but it was funny for sure. AND if you are going to London and can only see one or two shows, don’t see this one. There are plenty that are better, with more inspiring stories and music like Les Mis and Lion King (Personal favorites). But nonetheless we had a blast and laughed hard. Very entertaining. So glad my family is here with me! Nothing could make me happier.