Two hour naps are life changing (and other good news)

-I may actually finish my homework before midnight tonight
-I won't have to teach or give a talk for the rest of my time in Catford ward (fingers crossed)
-Shortened classes tomorrow and an afternoon string quartet concert (nap time?)
-We have nutella again
-Two more class days and then we're off to the Liverpool and the Lake District!

Additionally, I can do anything good:

Edinbur-ugh Highlights

So I just got back from a surprisingly leisurely three-day stay in Edinburugh. First of all our hostel was surprisingly clean and comfortable. It was fairly new and felt much more like a motel than...well a hostel. There were no mysterious stains on the bed-sheets or pigeons in the bedrooms (unlike Ilfracombe). We spent monday touring Edinburugh Castle and miraculously had all of Tuesday to ourselves! I planned on spending part of the day at the coast but ended up missing the coach part of the group took to the beach. So I spent the day in exploring Edinburugh and probably had a better time than the group who traveled 3 hours on the bus round trip only to spend a few hours on a cold, windy beach. I can see plenty of those at home. So I ended up spending the morning shopping (mostly just browsing) at a mall-like collection of stores dominated by items that fall somewhere between dresses and shirts supplemented by a conveniently large selection of leggings. Two hours and 30-less pounds later (I found one appropriately long dress I liked) we walked to the Scottish National Gallery (which has a surprisingly extensive collection of art) and stopped for lunch at the gallery's cafe for an expensive but delicious English cheddar and tomato chutney sandwich. After lunch, we trekked the length of the very hilly city to the queen's botanical gardens and spent a few hours taking pictures and lying in the afternoon sun that finally emerged. For dinner we stopped at a surprisingly authentic thai place for pad thai. The Thai waitresses, reclining Buddhas and smell of basmati rice almost made me feel like I was back in Thailand. With no homework or wifi access to distract me, I went to bed early (one of my favorite parts of overnight trips) and hiked to Arthur's Seat, where Orson Pratt went to pray during his mission in Edinburugh, the following morning. Well, a group of us hiked most of the way and decided that was good enough. In our defense, it was raining and the basalt path was very slippery. After the "hike" we toured Scottish Parliament with an LDS MSP and SNP member. This was probably my favorite part of the entire trip. I loved seeing a site that I actually studied somewhat extensively. Honestly, I could care less about castle ruins and cathedrals. Seeing one or two is nice but I kind of feel like after seeing one you've seen them all. But I suppose this is because I know relatively nothing about the history of English monarchy/Arthurian legends. Although I'm learning a bit from skimming my history readings when I find the time. However, I do feel like I've learned quite a lot about modern British politics from my poli sci class. So I appreciated the significance of the Parliament building's surprisingly modern architecture and the legislation our tour guide discussed (despite his heavy Scottish brogue). In short, Edinburgh was a nice departure from hectic life in London. But now I'm back in the Centre analyzing Macbeth on five hours of sleep. Such is life I suppose.

Pictures again are forthcoming. Perhaps even on this very blog.

27 degrees celsius.

Kensington gardens resembles a crowded california beach.
The queue outside the little gelato shop on bayswater spills out into the street.
Shirtless and very sunburned British men populate the sidewalks.
And the underground smells more delightful than ever.

Fortunately there are only 204 steps from the bottom of Queensway station to my bedroom door.

I taught my relief society lesson today! It went...okay i think. It's over. That's what matters. Afterward we had a picnic with the bishop, his wife and their one-year-old daughter in Greenwich park. There were hundreds of sunburned people in swimsuits laying on towels and eating ice cream. I kept expecting to see the coastline but there was no beach in sight. Just the skyscrapers of London's financial district. We thought about taking some pictures at the prime meridian, but there were way to many people for that. We did however walk through Greenwich market on the way to the train and I would love to go back. It's maybe only 1/10 the size of Portabello, but it had some great stuff.

Now I just have to pack for Scotland!

Weekend Warrior

I [almost] survived the week! Just a few more small assignments and a relief society lesson (which I am more than a little bit nervous about) to plan. Then three class-free days in edinburgh! And hopefully things will ease up homework-wise until finals. That's what I'm hoping at least.

Today we spent the day touring Runneymede, Windsor Palace, Milton's house and some church/graveyard that inspired Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." Honestly, by the time I got to that final destination I was too exhausted, hot and sunburned to care about anything besides sleep and air-conditioning. (Today must have been at least 75 in the sun! Much, much warmer than the cool and cloudy weather I'm used to seeing here) The week of 4-5 hours of sleep a night and very long, busy days was finally getting to me. I think everyone was pretty low-energy by this point though. As soon as we got to Milton's cottage and found out we had to wait a few minutes before we could start the tour, everyone laid out on the grass and at least half of us fell asleep. The tour guide mentioned something about the front garden looking like the aftermath of an atomic bomb with fifty lifeless bodies sprawled everywhere.

I'm still trying to find a balance between sleep and sightseeing. I'm not sure which should be my priority right now. I've come to realize that I NEED six to seven hours of sleep at least every other night to appreciate what I'm seeing at all. But I feel bad resting in the centre when I could be missing an opportunity to see London. My time here is quickly running out. I think I'm just about halfway finished with the term. But at the same time, I have seen so much already. And I'm fairly certain this won't be my only time in the UK.

[Facebook pictures should be updated within the next 24 hours].

A brief (and by no means comprehensive) list of my sacrifices to midterms week

I am hereby giving up:

-Sleep (between 10-11:30pm review sessions and 6 am breakfast I'm thinking I can expect no more than 5 hours)
-Washing my hair (maybe showering altogether. tbd.)
-Dental floss, gum, body wash (no time for a drugstore or "chemist" run this week)
-Oh yeah, seeing London. Who has time for that?

I will have a headache everyday.

I will eat copious amounts of bread, peanut butter, and nutella (the only food the centre provides besides breakfast and dinner).

Portabello Ponderings

The only thing worse than doing homework in London is being sick and doing homework IN LONDON. Today I went back to Portabello market and wandered around for about four hours. It was sooooo much more crowded today than last week because it was sunny and warm (mid 60s?). And we went a lot later. After pushing my way through the crowd past block after block of stalls I found a couple summery scarves I liked. For 50P each! They may not be very good quality or real silk (as a nearby vendor kindly pointed out) but they are very pretty. I think. There are so many things I would like to buy there but none are very practical. A vintage tea set? An early 1900s edition of Lyrical Ballads? What would I even do with those? I'd like a vintage carpet-bag style purse but they are all either 50+ pounds or in terrible condition. Or both. I do need some good London souvenirs though! Something better than a cheap T-shirt. There were some pretty antique rings, but by the time I got the the main jewelry section my entire body was aching and I felt like throwing up. Maybe next time? I really should do something else on Saturdays eventually. Maybe Camden Market? Or a museum or two? I am getting quite sick of museums though. At least history ones. And cathedrals. I would rather not see another cathedral anytime soon. Oh well.

Church tomorrow. At least I don't have to teach. (I was called as a Relief Society instructor. Did I mention that?). Although church means at least three hours of navigating the tube/train/bus system, which is prone to frequent closures Sunday mornings. And then devotional+a fireside back at the Centre. They still manage to fill every hour of our Sundays here in London. So much for a day of rest.

I need at least five more hours in my days.
So much homework to do this weekend.
And so many other things I'd rather be doing.

And I suppose I should mention something
about my three-day West Trip
To Winchester, Bath, Ilfracombe, Glastonbury
And various other locations.
Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe I'm just not very good at this
journal-blogging thing.

Facebook photos will have to work for now.

In Which I Briefly Catalogue the Past Four Days and Direct You To My Facebook Album For Details

I think I saw Gordon Brown today. Although I'm not quite sure. While I was walking between Westminster Abbey and the Cabinet War Rooms I came across a huge crowd surrounding the gated entrance to what I think was the PM's residence? Either way they were holding a press conference about the hung parliament resulting from yesterday's election. As I pushed my way through the crowd, I heard people whisper Gordon Brown was exiting the building and point to a distant figure in a black trench coat. So it may or may not have been him, but the reaction of the crowd was the interesting part. A bunch of people pressed their faces between the iron bars and started shouting "resign!" and waving signs stating things like "a hung parliament means we need proportional representation." I know I should have taken a picture, Dad but unfortunately I didn't... I thought it was exciting because we just finished talking about representative vs. majoritarian electoral systems in poli sci.

So the past four days have been a whirlwind of activity. Somehow I managed to:

-Tour the Tower the Tower of London
-Watch an amazing production of Les Mis from the sixth row (for less than 30 pounds!)
-Visit Stonehenge, Bemerton, the Wilton House and Stourhead all in one day! (And somehow sleep for two hours on a crowded tour bus)
-See "Midsummer Night's Dream" at Shakespeare's globe as a "groundling" (aka standing for three hours)
-Enjoy two (maybe three?) separate trips to the little gelato shop on Bayswater
-Tour (I ran out of verbs) Westminster Abbey and Churchill's Cabinet War rooms

Tomorrow: Portabello Market? Maybe Tate Britain? And homework. Lots of homework.

I can't believe I've already spent almost ten days in London town. I do feel like I've pretty much gotten the tube system down though. And I still can't believe how much their is to see here! London really is much more than New York without trash cans and obesity (as one of my classmates astutely observed).

I wander through each chartered street...

Let's see where did I last leave my anxious readers (all two or three of you)...

Saturday I spent the morning at Borrough market and the Tate modern museum. Borrough was fun but nothing too exciting––very much like a miniature Pike's place. Lots of produce, fresh bread, cider and cheese. I sampled a blueberry scone and fresh cranberry juice, both of which were pretty good. The Tate modern was interesting but I really to go back sometime soon. Two hours definitely isn't enough to see everything. Last Sunday we went to the Hyde Park ward instead of splitting up into groups and attending wards all over London because the stake we will be joining (Wandsworth Stake?) was having stake conference. Because it was Fast Sunday, I got to hear a lot of different accents while the ward members bore their testimonies. There were people from Nigeria, Russia, Germany, the Philippines and several other Eastern European countries. English members were certainly in the minority, which I suppose is fairly representative of London as a whole. The stake president, who spoke to the BYU students during the second hour, is an English native in his late twenties or early thirties who married a woman from California. He explained that he and his family chose to live in expensive, urban London to support what he called the modern pioneers of Hyde Park who literally come from all over the world.

Today was a slightly less busy day. I had classes in the morning, went shopping for laundry detergent and a few groceries in the afternoon and walked through Hyde Park in the evening. Now I need to make a dent in my hours and hours homework assignments. Tomorrow we will be getting up early and spending most of the day at the Tower of London. I wish I could write more but I haven't yet figured out how to complete all of my homework and see all of London while simultaneously chronicling my experiences.