Just Another Day in Paradise

Today was another amazing day in London. This morning, a couple girls and I went running in Hyde Park, the park about one minute from the centre. The park is absolutely gorgeous!! Everything is so green! It was a little rainy, but it felt good to run in cooler weather. The park is really into Peter Pan, which makes it even more awesome. There’s a Peter Pan statue and a Peter Pan park, but you can’t play at the park unless you have little kids with you. Good thing the professors have little chillins :) Running through the park is exactly what I imagine the countryside in England to look like. It was like stepping out of Becoming Jane or Pride & Prejudice! A group of kids in the centre go running there every morning, and I think I might join them, at least on some days. It’ll make me feel better about eating so many sweets :)

Lauren and I with our raclettes

The first thing we did as a group this morning was to go to Borough market. I think on my last blog post I might have put Portobello market, but I meant Borough. The market is in Southwark, which is south of the Thames, so we walked across London Bridge to get there. You bet I sang “London Bridge is falling down,” and I've had Fergie’s “London Bridge” stuck in my head all day. Borough market is the great food market of London. We got hot chocolate from this place called artisan de chocolate, and it was amazing! Seriously, the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. It was made with dark chocolate, so it was kind of bitter and sooo rich. Yum!! I got the best toasted cheese sandwich I’ve ever had, too. It's called a raclette. It had onions in it and was flavor packed! Oh, it’s making me so hungry just to think about it! The market had other good foods like meat, cheese, fruit, and smoothies. We’re going to go back there again before we leave to get some raspberries; we tried some and they were so sweet! Whoever said that London doesn’t have good food is crazy!

Melting the cheese for our raclettes at Borough Market

We went off on our own around the market, and then met up at Southwark cathedral. These chairs in the chapel were labeled with names like William Shakespeare, John Gower, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, and William Wilberforce, which I thought was super cool! A priest inside the cathedral told us that Shakespeare went to that church, and his brother is buried there. The priest asked us where we were from, and when we told him Utah, he said he knew the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and BYU! He called it the famous Mormon university. It’s cool to hear that people in Europe know of the church! When people here, especially tour guides, learn that we’re from America, they try to spin whatever they’re presenting in a way they think will interest us. For example, the priest told us that inside the cathedral they have a special room for Harvard students to come when they graduate. Also, when we were in St. Paul’s, the tour guide pointed out a stained glass window that has all the U.S. state flags. The window is a memorial to the U.S. soldiers who died helping England in World War II. Anyway, it’s interesting to see what Londoners think of Americans. I know they think we’re loud, because every time we ride the tube they always look at us like we’re little hooligans.

Anyways… sorry, got off track! After seeing the cathedral, we went to the Tate Modern museum. On our way, we saw Shakespeare's globe theater, which made me so happy! We're going to see Henry V there towards the end of the trip. We're going to Stratford on Avon on Monday to see Twelfth Night, and I can't wait! We also passed by Millenium Bridge, the bridge the death eaters blow up in Harry Potter 6! If someone could tell my roommate Alison Brand that they rebuilt the bridge, that would be grand :) So, I wasn't a big fan of the Tate Modern. I don't really like modern art, so I wasn't fond of most of the artwork in there. Our assignment was to write down which piece we liked the most, and which piece we had a hard time seeing as art. The one I disliked the most was probably a painting that looked like a 2nd grader could have done it. I think I took a picture of it... I'll have to post it. My favorite was "The Metamorphosis of Narcissus" by Salvador Dali. The other ones were just plain weird. 

We broke off in groups to finish the Southwark walk when we were done at the Tate Modern, which was basically a walk along the Thames. We got some cool pictures with Big Ben and the houses of Parliament in the background, but we're going to go there as a group some time later. On our way home though, we passed by Trafalgar square and I'm so excited to go there! We're not going there as a group, but this Friday we have nothing but class, so we're all going to journey over there to check it out. We took the tube to a store called Primark, and it reminded me of H&M/Forever 21. My little sister Courtney would love it! I got some rain boots finally, and a bigger messenger bag to carry my stuff around. I had a somewhat embarrassing moment in Primark... I was looking at a pair of shoes and bumped into this guy on accident. He said sorry in his British accent, and I said sorry back in a British accent! I started saying it that way then realized I shouldn't, but then it was too late. Katherine overheard and started laughing, so then I started laughing, and I think the guy thought we were making fun of him. Whoops! 

Tonight, we went to dinner at a Thai place called Tuk Tuk Thai. I got pad thai with prawn (shrimp) and it was good, but not my favorite. We all ordered water, then the waitress asked us if we wanted it sparkling, and then she asked us what size we wanted. We all had no clue what she meant, so we just ordered soda instead. The soda is cheaper than water here! It was at that restaurant anyways. A big group of us went to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall after dinner. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it, but I ended up loving it! I love it when people talk about what they love, so I loved it when all the musical people in the group tried to explain to me the different movements and terms. Mostly, I just smiled and nodded :) The music was beautiful, and I especially liked the Tchaikovsky piece at the end. My absolute favorite though was the conductor. He was hilarious to watch! He was jumping and almost dancing around up there! It looked like he was doing jumping jacks and running in place! I had to try so hard not to laugh. After it was over, I told everyone that I wanted to change my major to conducting; really, he was inspirational. While we were at the Phil, the other half of the group went to see The Avengers. I had already bought my ticket to the Phil, so it was too late to back out. Everyone said The Avengers was the best Marvel movie they've ever seen! Ahh I'm dying to see it! A group of us are going on Tuesday to see it, and I cannot wait! 

London is an amazing city, and I love, love, love all the people here with me. I miss you all!