adventures in london

london has bee great and very exhausting and pretty cold. i've worn a sweater almost everyday since i've been in europe. i've done a lot of things here so far, may favorites being st. paul's cathedral, wicked, the merry wives of windsor, jane austin's house, stonehenge, and westminster abby.

st. paul's cathedral is absolutely beautiful inside. diana and i decided we didn't want to pay the extra £4 for a tour so we started wandering around. a tour guide came up to us and asked us if we had any questions, which i did. our conversation quickly turned religious (we were in a cathedral after all) and he asked what faith we were, so we said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. suddenly his face lit up and he said "oh! you're mormons! i have your book!" then he gave us a free tour :) we liked him and he was very nice. after the tour we climbed hundreds of stairs to get to the very top of the cathedral, which is the second largest in europe! we had very tired legs when we came back down.

on monday i got to go see wicked, london's number one running show and it was AMAZING!!!! i would go again, i think. the cast was phenomenal, and the story line was entertaining. on wed. i watched the merry wives of windsor at shakespear's globe theatre, which was very cool. it is the first building to be built with a thatched roof since 1666, because thatched roofs were outlawed after the great fire of that year. i don't know why, but it makes me laugh every time i think of that :) or coordinator wasn't able to get us seats all together, so i sat by myself, next to a little old lady who was very friendly. she told me that she had a sister that was in the standing area because she was one of those "energetic type". she then pointed her out to me and it was another little old lady standing by the stage waving at us. that made me laugh too.

yesterday we made an all day trip as a class. we went to jane austin's house and the grounds were so pretty! there were beautiful flowers everywhere. the house itself was okay. . .it was set up in museum style. i did get to see a lock of her hair and a bed spread that she, her sister, and mother made from scraps of old dresses. it was really pretty. we walked down the lane to her brother's house and it was big and beautiful. i really felt like i was in a movie based on one of jane autin's novels.

later that day we went to stonehenge, which literally means hanging rock. it was really cool and it really does have some sort of mystic pull on a person. i got to take an audio tour and learn the history, suggested symbolism and uses of the stones, and some myths about it. it took about 40 minutes and was very interesting. i loved it! such a cool experience.

today i went to the tower of london, saw tower bridge, big ben, the houses of parliament, toured westminster abby and went to an evensong there. it was really cool because we got to sit by the choir in the quire since we were at the front of the line and got to watch the clergy walk down the line to the high alter. but i didn't participate in any of their prayers :) but i really liked west minster abby. i got to see the tombs of many england kings and queens, but my favorite was the poet's corner. i saw chaucer's tomb, and memorials to other great authors like charles dickens, jane austin, shakespeare, kipling, the bronte sisters, handle, thomas harding, etc. it was really cool!