Oxford, Stourhead, and Tower of London

Welcome to Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry. This picture is of Oxford’s Christ College where the great hall was used for the HP movies. It was fun to be at Oxford because the students were in the middle of finals and their entire grade depends on one test so you could feel the pressure in the air. Ironically, two days later I had an English finals which the entire grade was dependent on one test but I wasn’t stressing-there could possibly be a correlation between this and my denial letter from Oxford. The students were dressed in the mandatory testing clothes which were small black caps and silly hats. Also while at Oxford I was able to go the pub called “The Eagle and Child” which is where Tolkien and CS Lewis would sit and talk about book ideas. My friend ate in the rabbit room where the authors would routinely sit. It was cool.





This picture of my friends and I was taken at Stourhead. Stourhead was so gorgeous!. The gardens there were amazing! This is where scenes from Pride and Prejudice (the most recent film with Kira Knightly) were taken. There was also a wedding going on so we waited for the bride to see her dress. It was very anti-climatic because she came out in a limo in a burgundy Alyssa’s bridal type prom dress. Note to all friends getting married soon…which is a surprising bunch. Choose white or cream.






Here my friends and I are together with a beefeater at the tower of London. The tour was fun, but very touristy. While there we saw the crown jewels-which in my opinion are not as cool as the stone of scone displayed by the Scottish crown jewels.

Paris...in ten hours

Is it possible to do Paris in a day? Yes! To explain my adventure I will simply submit my itinerary.

3:00 am Wake Up!
4:00 am Catch a bus to the tube station.
8:00 am Arrive in Paris.
10:00 am Visit the Notre Dame.
10:15 am Go to the most eclectic and cute bookstore ever. Amazing!
11:00 am Stop for a cheese and ham sandwich from a vendor. So good!
11:15 am Quickly see the Louvre and watch the hordes of people looking at Mona.
1:15 pm Start down the Champs Elysses.
2:00 pm Stop for a lemon pastry. So good!
3:00 pm Stumble upon the Arc d’triumph.
4:00 pm Head over to the Eiffel Tower.
5:00 pm Watch the gypsies at the tower and eat the most amazing ice cream ever.
6:00 pm Go shopping and drink Orangina out of the glass bottles.
6:16 pm Stop at a vendor and get the most delicious banana nutella crepe
7:00 pm See the Moulon Rouge (disgusting and so not my idea.)
8:00 pm Go back to the bus station and leave to go home.

Paris=Food=Happiness

Stratford

Sorry for the delayed pictures. Due to my limited time here I only have a brief amount of time to post. We went to Stratford where Shakespeare lived. We saw his birthplace, and the entire city is a shrine to him. We also stayed at a very cute bed and breakfast which is pictured above, and we had our first complete English breakfast complete with tomatoes and mushrooms. We then went to a museum on Harry Potter called the Creaky Cauldron. It was anti-climatic because it wasn’t a portal to the wizarding world, but it was still fun. I was sorted into slytherin so watch out! We also went to Warwick Castle and saw jousting, trebuchet, and a bird show. Think Disneyland gone castle. There I saw an old high school buddy David Moon. It was a small world.

Cambridge

This week we went to Cambridge and experienced one of the most well known schools in the world. It was so interesting to see how their campus is set up. It is all very spread out and the colleges within the university have a lot of autonomy and pride. The college lines the Cam river, and so we-like most Cambridge students-went punting along the river. It was so much fun. I was thinking of dad the entire time. Also, happy birthday dad! I’m glad you were born.

Soccer...oh wait-FOOTBALL

Last night we went to the FA international game of USA and England. The game was at Wimbley stadium which is huge, and the fans were wearing tons of red. There were about 71, 322 people in attendance and the crowd was a lot quieter and more respectful then at byu (something I did not expect). I really loved the game and consider this one of my favorite things here. David Beckham got a golden cap award for playing 100 times against France and Kelly Roland from destiny's child sang the national anthem. The speakers weren't workign so it sounded really bad...just a mean trick from the queen.

Market

There are a lot of open markets in London, and it is not uncommon for my friends and I to go to multiple markets on Saturday. One of my favorites has been borough market. This is a fresh foods market and everything is delicious! We had a biggest grilled cheese sandwich. Also, during the same day as the market the country was having bank holiday and so at the Tate modern there were tons of people playing games (it was the museums theme) and on the of games was fresh veggie chess. I liked the picture and I thought it went well with the food selection from above.

Plays

This week I was able to go to two plays in the theater district. We went to Sound of Music and Into the Hoods. Having only seen half of Sound of Music I was a bit skeptical, but it was amazing. The songs were great, and the stage literally had a large mountain on it. I was very impressed with the sets. At one point we were surrounded by Hitler’s swastikas and I was feeling a bit uncomfortable. It was intense. Into the Hoods is a spoof on Into the Woods. The plot was very lacking in this play, but it was entirely composed of modern rap and hip hop music with amazing breakers. The dancing was incredible and it was so much fun. Leaving the theater was so great, everyone was rocking out to Jackson 5 and dancing. The picture of it is my friends and I trying to be from the ‘hood’…if you couldn’t tell.

*more pictures of sound of music will be coming. I'm waiting to be tagged on facebook b/c tourists tend to be very obnoxious holding up massive amounts of people to take pictures and so i try to make it easier by only having 5 cameras from utahns instead of six.