A bloggy day in London town

I have been kind of dreading blogging because I am so far behind. The time is flying and I don't want to spend it in front of a computer! Hence, I have already pulled two all-nighters while I've been here to do homework and papers because I refuse to spend all day sitting in the centre being productive haha. But I was talking with some people last night and they were kind of appalled because I don't skype, skype-chat, gchat, call, or email my family every day, weekly, or every other week for that matter. Sorry guys!  My best effort at keeping in touch is this blog, and the best I can do right now is some more highlight pics from the last 10 days or so. I hope you like them!
P.S. -- to see some other stuff I've been up to in London don't forget to check here!

Les Mis!

The entire program went, but this is a few of us after the show 

Hampton Court
The group took a little day trip to he palace of Henry VIII. It was huge and pretty awesome, almost overwhelmingly so! My favorite part, of course were the gardens and the exterior architecture. It's interesting how the palace has a lot of different facades because different architects worked on different parts The rooms inside all kind of started to look the same after about the 3rd wing and the audio guide tour was too long-winded.

The Down House

This is Charles Darwin's home and the other stop on our little day trip. It's called the Down House because it's in Downe, England. I'm not going to lie, at this point I was kind of museumed-out, as I call it, since Hampton Court was a lot to handle, and I hadn't read Charles and Emma, like everyone in the English class did, so I wasn't too interested in this Darwin place. But then the bus rolled up to the cutest house ever with beautiful gardens and I was sold. It was interesting because the first floor rooms are preserved as they were when he and his family lived there, and then the top floor rooms are little exhibits. 

We got to take a stroll through the gardens and along the "sand path" Darwin liked to walk along while he thought. This was a pretty view back on the house.

 Wicked!
I had been wanting to go since I got here, but most people had already gone. So after dinner on a Tuesday, Nick and I randomly decided to go, along with Cara who goes to the same ward as me on Sundays. It was the best snap decision ever! We left the Centre at 6:30 and booked it over to the Apollo Theatre. At about forty minutes till the show began we got there and ended up getting 4th row, center tickets for 28 pounds! Perks of being a student, going on a weekday, and showing up right beforehand! I absolutely LOVED the show. The set, the costumes, the music, and  the cast were all fabulous. Elphaba's voice was amazing and Glinda was so funny. I wish I could go again before I leave!

4th row! So close I couldn't get it all in the shot!

Cara, me, and Nick before the show

 Cambridge!
The group went on another day trip to Cambridge a couple weeks ago, now. Of course, it is famous for Cambridge University, comprised of dozens of separate colleges spread throughout the city. The main reason we all went was because Dr. Miller had arranged with his colleague, the director BYU summer Honors program at Cambridge, to have some of the students there show us around and get kind of an insider's look at Cambridge while the whole place was pretty much shut down because of exams. Apparently they don't take exams every semester. They get to take a week of comprehensive exams after three whole years of school! Woof. Cambridge was quite enjoyable. Dr. Carey took us into a Wren chapel at Pembroke College and gave us some info on the colleges, then gave us a huge list of stuff we could go see with the students to take us around. I went and saw an exhibition on the emergence of the King James Bible at the Cambridge University Library. They had a real Gutenberg Bible so that was pretty awesome to see. The whole group reconvened at King's College Chapel for a little tour. As it turns out, John and Susan Tanner were in Cambridge for the day before they head out on their mission, and they hung out with our group for a bit, which was really nice of them. The highlight of the day though was "punting on the Cam," or riding in quasi-gondolas down the Cam River, which runs behind all the Colleges. It was so quaint but hard because you propel the little wooden boat with just an a paddle in the front, and an aluminum pole on the back! My boat had some issues with steering, to say the least, but it was really fun and beautiful!

 
King's College quad

punting down the Cam

Shakespeare at the Globe!

I thought I'd throw this in here; I've been to two plays at the Globe now: All's Well That Ends Well and As You Like It. They were both such fun shows, and it's awesome to be up close to the actors. They are so good! The day after As You Like It the group got to go on a tour of the Globe and the remains of the Rose, its predecessor. We saw a live rehearsal of Much Ado About Nothing, which was really fun to see and has the guy who played Geoffrey the butler on Fresh Prince!

Kelsey, Nick, Andrea, me, and Scott after the Globe Tour

Oxford!

Oxford was great. Me, Tara, Shelisa, and Hannah decided to go as a little sef-guided day trip a couple Saturdays ago since it's only an hour train ride away. We wanted to see some the HP sites there, the colleges, get some paraphernalia, etc. Our Oxford trip was fun, and I would definitely go back and do it again! It is more touristy than Cambridge, but they are both great in their own ways. 

Outside the Great Hall of Christ Church College, the inspiration for the Great Hall in the Harry Potter Movies, but NOT where they filmed it. We still wanted to go though and pretend it was. We were SO BUMMED because we ran to get there by 4:30, got there at 4:28, and the guy still wouldn't let us in. We sat on the steps and wept for a bit. I'm just barely getting over it.
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The Divinity Room where they DID film the infirmary in HP 1 and the dance lesson scene in HP 4!

This is during our climb up to the top of a church that overlooks the whole of Oxford. There were stunning views, which I included a couple of below:

Radcliffe Camera, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and now the reading room of the Bodleian Library.
It's one of my favorite pieces of architecture that I've seen so far!

Lastly, we ended our Oxford day with dinner at the Eagle and Child pub, the stomping grounds of J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. They would meet up and bounce ideas off each other and swap their drafts of Narnia and Lord of the Rings.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned! My next post is on North England, Scotland, and the Lake District! After that: PARIS. Brace yourselves, lads.