Look what I found!

On Thursday, we went to The National Gallery for a homework assignment, which was basically just to look at paintings. How much better does homework get? Well, if I didn’t have to write about the paintings that might be nice. But it’s still something I appreciate. I would rather be told to go to the National Gallery, see the actual artwork, and write about a painting that I love, than be told to go look it up online and try to imagine what it looks like. At the Gallery, I saw some fantastic Van Goghs, a roomful of Suerats,  beautiful Monets, and countless others. But our focus for the assignment was on J. M. W. Turner. His paintings are gorgeous.

After the National Gallery, we headed over to Harrods for some ice cream (in which I did not indulge, too pricey) and to look around. At one point we walked into a room full of interesting and beautiful sculptures and art pieces. A thought popped into my head and I went over to the base of one of the sculptures to check. Yep, there is was. A price tag for about £700,000.  No big deal, right? I did find one thing at Harrods that I want to buy. An adorable little sign.

Thursday night, five of us went to go see the Tragedy of Richard III. It was so well done. I’d never seen a Shakespeare play, so it was something entirely new. The man who played Richard did such a fantastic job. He portrayed Richard as an evil, kniving, older man, who thought he was a genius and a comedian and a wizard over women. The play was done traditionally with men playing the part of women. And there was a kiss. Let me tell you, there was total dedication and  full commitment to that kiss. I was impressed. They ended the performance with a dance that was so fun to watch. In all, it was an experience that I am so grateful to have.

At the Tower of London

Friday we all went to explore the Tower of London. What a place to visit! There was so much more there than I had expected there to be. The crown jewels were stunning. There was a diamond there that is not much smaller than my fist and a ruby about the size of my palm. And many, many, many other valuable, shiny rocks. And there were more than just jewels there. Also included were many gold plates, cups, and ceremonial dishes, some of them solid gold. One of my classmates casually said “A few of these plates would solve America’s deficit problem.” “Yeah,” another replied, “if we had all this, we probably would have sold it by now.” But would we really? I would like to think that if we had valuable similar to the crown jewels they would be such an integral part of our history that we would cling to them, like Britain has.

The rest of the Tower of London was great. Unfortunately there was a significant lack of chopping blocks where I could stage a decent photo. But there was other interesting stuff to see. Like where the two princes were probably kept and murdered. And the location where people’s heads were actually chopped off. And White Tower was full of interesting things on the history of weapons and war.

One of my favorite parts was when a few of us were walking around and saw a man dressed as a knight. As we were debating whether or not to talk to him, he saw our furtive glances in his direction and walked right over, making our decision for us.

“Hello,” said the knight. “How are you this day?”

“Good,” I replied, “And how are you?”

“I am well.”

“So what is your name?” He had to have some interesting name if he was dressed as a knight.

“I’m…ehh…well, uh,” he finally gave up on trying to find a more knightly name.  “I’m Mark.”

Me and Mark the Knight

We chatted for a bit, asking for good places to visit while at the Tower and any information we could get that wouldn’t be included in a tour. As the conversation came to an end, I asked for a picture. I’m working on a sort of photo project where I take pictures of a teddy bear named Wallace at well-known places. So I thought a photo with a knight would be great for Wallace.

“Would you hold my teddy bear?”

“Um, I can’t,” said Mark the Knight.

“Can’t or won’t?” I querried.

“I’m gonna say I’m not allowed,” Mark the Knight hesitantly responded.

“Well, alright then. Can I hold your sword?”

Found a place to sit.

“Uhhh…” He looked at me, then at his sword. Back at me, back at the sword. I suppose he felt guilty for not holding my teddy bear, because he decided to break whatever rule was preventing him from being totally okay with handing over his weapon. “Ok, sure.” Success.

A climbers paradise.

Saturday we went on a 12 mile hike around the country. It was nice. Rather cold and muddy, but it was very refreshing to be outside and away from the city. We saw some old castle ruins. It was a climbers paradise. All that was left was the foundation and the walls. But is was still fun to explore. We also visited a lavender field and farm where there was this cute little shop that sold all sorts of lavender products. I would have bought something, but I’m not fond of the smell of lavender.

Sunday we went back to our little ward in Micham. We left the house at 8:40 to try and make it there with some time to spare in case they wanted me to play the organ. Our train was half an hour late and knowing that it takes a little over an hour to get there, I knew we were going to be late. We just barely made it to the tram that would take us to the station outside the church building. On the tram we saw the sister that had originally helped us find the building and we didn’t feel so bad about being late. We walked into the church building with three minutes to spare. We have no idea how we could have made it there on time. But it’s a good thing we did, because the pianist was late and I ended up playing. Earlier that week, I had been talking with our professors about the possibility of staying in the ward. They said if we could make it back to dinner by 5:45, we could stay in the ward. The stake center where the Micham ward will be moving to takes about 45 minutes to travel to. But it’s unlikely that we would actually make the trip in 45 minutes and with church ending at 5, we knew we wouldn’t be back by then. On our train ride, we all agreed that we would still ask to stay, even if we missed dinner. We talked with our professor and he said that if we were willing to be late, then we could stay. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I will be able to stay and serve in this ward with the children.

Last night, we had a special treat. One of our professors, George Nelson, who teaches the theater classes, was in a movie that was an LDS version of Pride and Prejudice. The lead actor, Orlando Seale, became good friends with the Nelsons and even stayed with them for a time. He’s a British actor and has been in many films, TV shows, and plays both British and American. He came to visit the Nelsons last night. Of course, I’ve only seen the LDS Pride and Prejudice once, and I think I was deliriously sick, and I haven’t seen anything else that he’s been in. So I had no idea who he was. But he walked into the servery and I leaned over to my friend Allison and whispered, “He has messy hair and is wearing a sports jacket, he must be famous.” Allison looked up and grabbed my arm and said, “Emma! That’s Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice! Of course he’s famous!” I may or may not have then stood up and fist pumped while yelling “Winning!”

Jonah, looking very Sherlock.

Leslie, Geroge’s wife, had heard my comment repeated it to Orlando, and then invited me to come and sit with them while they ate dinner together. He’s a very nice man and very interesting. The Nelsons asked if he wouldn’t mind talking to some of us interested in theater for a bit, and he agreed. He said some very interesting and thought provoking things, and I wish I had recorded it because I can’t remember all of what he said anymore! But some of the points I do remember were that he encourage us to fine happiness in our careers and in our lives. He said , “Do you find joy in what you are doing? Are you really happy, even though it’s hard and doesn’t always pay well? If not, what are you doing here. Find happiness and joy in your work.” One of the things he said specifically on acting was that acting lets us explore the paths that are a part of us that we didn’t chose to follow without consequence. He also expressed that sometimes you just have to make money. Often times you don’t find fulfilling what you thought you would, and often times you find fulfillment in things you never thought you would. We are hoping that he will come back and do a workshop with him.

So. Here I am. In London. Fabulous, I know.

With a horse outside Houses of Parliament.

I arrived in London safe and sound, though I highly disagreed with the technique the shuttle driver used to apply his brakes. And my luggage arrived a day late. But I survived, and I'm doing splendidly.

Outside our house.

I finally got some pictures from some of the other girls. We've walked around London a bit and seen where the sights are, though we didn't actually visit them. I can't wait to go back and visit, and take more pictures of my own.

The National Gallery.

Fierce.

As we were walking around the courtyard to one of the old churches, someone in my group looked at the ground and commented "These cobblestones are probably older that our country." And she was probably right. It wasn't until just then that I realized that London is so packed with history that I was literally walking on it.

What's that? Oh yeah, it's Big Ben.

Hey look! Spacemen!

On our walk we encountered some people (we later discovered they were attractive men, though they weren't allowed to have their visors up) dressed as astronauts walking around London. We first saw them outside the National Gallery. They were waving to people as they walked in front of the Gallery, so I felt it was safe to approach them. Well, the first astronaut was so please with this that he embraced me in a big bear hug and lifted me into the air. When he set me down I was quickly surrounded by more astronauts wanting high fives and hugs. And one even grabbed me and danced me around. A very official photographer who had been following them took a few pictures of our dance. Soon though, our group had to move along on our walk, so we left them as they started to line up and make different posses.

Astronaut hug!

But! We saw them again in front of the Millennium Bridge. At first, I didn't think they recognized us, but then one pointed at me and made a dancing motion. Yes, they remembered us. But we couldn't stay long. And unfortunately, it wasn't till we were too far away that I thought that I should have given the photographer my email and asked him to send me that picture of me dancing with a spaceman. Oh well, I'll probably just end up in a magazine somewhere and never even know it.

Today we went to Kensington Palace. It was amazing. It's funny to think that it was once a home to royalty. Like, they really lived right there. Incredible. And Queen Victoria was SO tiny. Like, smaller than me! Hard to believe. But the Palace and gardens were absolutely beautiful.

Kensington Palace Gardens

The LDS ward that me and three other girls were assigned to attend is a little more than an hour away and meets at 10 am. Upon our arrival at the tram station, a kind woman of the ward correctly guessed that we were the new BYU students and helped us find the chapel. Thank heavens or we never would have found it.

The ward consists mostly of Africans, with a few white families. During the first hour, we discovered that the building is going to be partially demolished and rebuilt, and that in two weeks the ward was moving to a new location and the services wouldn't start until 2 pm. That means we would be missing our dinner. Uh oh. After sacrament meeting (the first hour service), the bishop of the ward welcomed us and informed us we would be serving in the Primary with the children ages 18 months to 11 years old. They are an energetic group. I was put in charge of the 18 months to 5 year olds. So sweet and so cute.

The woman in charge of the Primary has only been in the position a few weeks and had not yet been assigned helpers because they were expecting us. She told us the children have been so excited to meet us and we were never without at least one on our laps when were were sitting down. The little girls plaited (braided) our hair until it was so snarly they couldn't divide it into sections to be plaited.

When the Primary President learned I can play piano she eagerly asked me to please play for the children and help them learn songs because they've never been able to use the small electric piano due to the lack of a proficient piano player. Then she discovered I could play the organ, and told me their organ hadn't been played during church services in years and was almost pleading with me to play for the ward in Sacrament meeting because their pianist knew only a few hymns and only on the piano. I was more than happy to agree.

She asked what would happen when they moved locations and I told her that we would go with the ward. It wasn't  until we arrived back at the London Center, and told our program leaders about the location and time change of the ward that I found out that wouldn't be the case. We will have to attend a ward that is earlier in the day. I can't help but think how much we could do for that ward. And soon we will have to leave. How will I tell this dear sweet  woman that I can't be there any more to teach the children songs. Maybe there's a way I could stay. We'll see.