Now in Edinburgh!

Phew! I finally caught up with my posts!

As the title says, I've made it to Edinburgh safe and sound. I got in yesterday (August 8th), checked into my hostel just fine, and met up with my brother Zach. I went to see their play "Chicken Bones for the Teenage Soup" which was HILARIOUS! Everyone was fantastic in all their scenes and parts. Simply well done and everyone in the audience loved it as much as me :)

After the show, I hung out with everyone while they waited for their bus to come pick them up. Some girls from another group came over to talk with us. While we were all talking, it reminded me of how much I missed my theater family. It was fantastic to see everyone again!

When their bus came, I took the local bus back to my hostel. I got myself settled in and worked on my posts while I waited to meet up with the group at 7:45. Around 6:40 I got a surprise visit from Zach and found out he told me the wrong time. Luckily I was pretty much ready so we headed out. After a long search, Zach, Evan, and I found a little restaurant to eat at. We didn't have a lot of time so we ordered the quickest meal they could cook up. Fish and Chips. I have to admit, they were not as fantastic as Brighton's, but I was too hungry to care and they were still quite yummy.

15 minutes later, we met up with the group for the ghost tour. All the girls were freaking out (well Allison was more excited then scared) and we took several trips to the toilet to make sure there was no chance of any trouser-wetting on this thing.

Our guide was Harry and he wore a black cloak. We all instantly thought Harry Potter. He was very friendly and chatted with everyone in the group. Things started to look up a bit. Then some of us (including me) saw a person dressed in friar clothing run from the Cathedral to the alley in the back. Yup, things got scary again.

The tour itself wasn't as scary as I thought it was. Harry was a fantastic story teller and the vaults we went to were indeed very dark, but nothing as frightening as I expected. Of course, all the modern day stories of tourists who had incidents happen to them all could be related to me. A girl traveling alone, someone staying in the old hostel, and so on. It really didn't help when Harry was telling the last story about a woman who was pushed to the back wall by invisible hands, everyone started moving away from that wall leaving me a clear pathway right to it. I just held on tighter to Karen Weis' arm and Haley's hand.

But the scariest part of all, I had to walk back to my old hostel alone. Luckily there were still lots of people out and about so I wasn't alone. When I got back to my room, people were still getting ready for bed so I got to fall asleep with the lights on. And a slept peacefully. SO grateful I was able to.

Well that's all for now. Ttfn, ta ta for now!

Bonding Time with Jo

Monday August 6^th:

I had planned to go to Cambridge but I ended up sleeping in WAY late. Like noon. I think my body is starting to take the hit of getting only 6 hours of sleep a night. Yes, 6 hours is a good amount of sleep but I’m the kind of person that usually needs 8 hours. I like my sleep time.

So instead, I went to the post office to mail some books and newspapers I collected. Sure they are fairly light, but I ne. The lady was incredibly helpful and helped me to find the cheapest price. I started with the option of paying 75 pounds and ended up only paying 44 pounds. Still a bit spendy, but WAY better compared to the original price.

After I got back, Jo and I went on a little road trip to Stamford and Bughley House. We walked around Stamford and saw a cute bakery with adorable cakes in the display window. The rain was coming down fairly hard so we took shelter in a shop. They had all kinds of fancy sculptures for decorations, silverware, high tea plates and trays, some purses, and very cute toys.

We went upstairs to the café to have a little scone snack. I had some hot chocolate and Jo got some herbal tea to go with our scones. Have to admit, it felt a bit strange to be needing to drink hot chocolate in August. Oh well, it was delicious.

The rain had stopped so we continued walking around. We went into a grocery store so Jo could buy a pork pie, a UK specialty.

We then drove to Bughey house and walked around the grounds. It’s not a house. It’s a mansion. It’s like the house-version of Kensington Palace! Anyways, as we were walking around the grounds some guys were putting down wooden planks for something. It looked like they were setting up for a horse jumping event.

After we got back to the house, we had some dinner and then had family night. We read some scriptures and played a game called… Something that started with an H and a long name. Basically, we played noisy charades. At first, Elliot and Ben were not for playing but eventually they got into it. It was boys vs. girls (3 to 2) and we really did make the strangest sounds. It felt like we were doing Sound effects from Whose line it is Anyway just without Colin and Ryan making hilarious comments (if you have time, look it up on youtube. The best ones are Tarzan, Indiana Jones, and Cops and Ducks. They’re all really good).

When we finished the game, Jo and I started talking about BYU. We ended talking for almost 2 hours about how the church numbers are in the UK and the USA, Malcolm in the Middle, how we like thriller books and not horror books, Jo’s incident at the movie Carrie with her sister, shared some stories of when our testimonies were tested and grew stronger, and confirmed details for tomorrow. Yeah, we talked about random things but it was a fantastic conversation full of laughs and spirit-filling moments.

Chatsworth House

Tuesday August 7^th:

The day started off pretty good. I got up on time, got ready, Jo took me to the station, and I made my train. The train ride was just fine and then we arrived in Chesterfield. I didn’t get up early enough so I had to wait for a huge line of little kids to go by and I was so worried the doors wouldn’t stay opened for me. Eventually I couldn’t stand waiting anymore, so I pushed my way through and got to the doors but they had closed. I kept pushing the button to open the door but then the train started moving. I missed my station. Suddenly for the first time in a LONG time, I got angry. Hulk –transforming angry. I was beating myself up (verbally) about it. “Why did you wait so long to get up? Why didn’t you just go to the other door? Why didn’t you push your way through earlier?” It was a very long ride to the next station.

Luckily, there was a train going back to Chesterfield 3 minutes after my train had arrived. When I got off the train, I began my search for the coach (bus) station. I asked a lady about my age if she knew where it was and she said that she and her mom were looking for it as well. We found a map of the town outside the station. The lady and her mom went ahead and I stayed to try memorizing the map. Then I saw a sign that said “To get to the coach station, follow the signs that lead to the tourist center” so I did just that. Found the coach station just fine, the lady helped me find the bus I needed and as I exited, the couple from earlier was entering.

We ended up going on the same bus and when we all got off at the same stop, I finally asked them if they were also going to Chatsworth house and they were. So we walked up the trail together and ended up spending the day together. Her name was Cheng and she had been studying in the UK for a year and her mom had come from China to visit her.

On the way up, we saw lots and lots of sheep doing sheep things like eat grass and sleep. That’s the life. We should have a sheep day where all we do is eat and sleep. That would be a fantastic holiday. Then again, that’s how I normally spend my Saturdays during the school year.

When we got to the house, I went into a Pride and Prejudice daydream. I was so excited to see “Pemberley” in real life! I was even more excited when the gate person said we could take pictures inside. AWESOME!

I think my favorite rooms were where scenes from the movie took places. I especially loved the sculpture gallery. I looked around for the Darcy bust and the veiled lady, but they were not there. That did make me a bit sad, but I wasn’t going to let it ruin my fantastic experience.

When we got outside, Cheng, her mom, and I took a lunch break. Cheng shared some Chinese Pork jerkey that was DELICIOUS. I hope they sell it somewhere in the states. Really hope they do.

We then walked around the gardens some. We spent most of our time at the Cascade fountain where I played in the water while Cheng and her mom climbed up all the way to the top. We saw the Trough waterfall (not a real waterfall. It was just a tiny stream. Bleh), a pretty pond with a gazebo overlooking it, some giant rabbit sculptures, the Emperor fountain, and some cool rock sculptures.

When we got back to Chesterfield station, Cheng and I exchanged email addresses, hugged then said our goodbyes.

Today defiantly had taken a turn for a terrible day, but it ended up turning into a fantastic time where I got to make a new friend. Just comes to show that the big guy upstairs knows what He’s doing :)

Sunday with the Contehs

Sunday August 5^th:

I went to Church with the Contehs today. During Sacrament, I sat with Alice and her friends. Since it was fast and testimony meeting, there were no speakers. They were all very nice and shockingly most of fairly short. The one that stood out to me was given by an elderly gentleman who talked about how we all can lose the ability to hear the Holy Ghost when we’re surrounded by the loud sounds of life. He said that it is important to put in our hearing aids and help them stay in good shape by doing the small little things of saying prayers, scripture reading, listening to the prophet, and so on.

In Sunday school I sat with Elliot, Aly and Jo’s eldest son, and his friends John and Jamie. They were very fun and silly to sit with.  We were on lesson 30 (still in Alma. I think it was up to chapter 41) and we talked about why there are so many war chapters in the Book of Mormon and the Nephites’ attitude when they went into battle.

In Relief Society, the Young Women were visiting so I got to sit with Jo. The lesson was on Gordon B Hinckley’s talk from 1980 about Joseph Smith’s testimony of Christ.

After church, there was a meeting about the road show they are doing in September. It is not competitive and the them is “Once upon a time… and they lived happily ever after.” The director suggested the idea of everyone being scarecrows and the storyline possibly being about missionaries. Mainly the point of the meeting was to find out how many people would be willing to help and find out the theme so people could start brainstorming for the next meeting. Don’t know why exactly, you would want to know this. But if you have random free time it can be fun to come up with story lines and songs. Just for fun, you know ;)

When we all got back, I met Beth (the eldest child in the Conteh family) and her friend Matt. We all got changed and waited for the gold-medal tennis match. It was a good match, one set was SUPER intense because the scores kept changing from 40 all to Advantage for what felt like forever. When Andy Murray won the match point, Jo and Alice jumped in their seats and we all cheered when he won! Though I do have to admit that this match wasn’t was intense to watch as the previous match, but it was really cool to watch Andy Murray win.

Saturday - Introduction to Peterborough

Saturday August 4th:

Today was a relaxing day after a week full of daytrips. I spent most of my time uploading pictures on my computer and rotating them. Also worked on catching up with the blog (Still working on that).

In the afternoon, I walked with Aly and Jo into town. They went to run errands and I did some sightseeing. I went to the Peterborough museum and spent most of my time playing with all the kids’ activities and trying on the hats and costumes of course. They had exhibitions about the first people in Peterborough, the Romans, a section about animals in the sea and forests, and a 1900s version of Peterborough.

After the museum I went to the Cathedral. This was a first, I didn’t have to pay for admission but I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. Guess you can’t have both. When I walked in, there was an orchestra practicing so while I was looking around there was various soft and majestically loud music that would play. At one point, I started imagining I was in some sort of movie and the music was my soundtrack and I made up a scene with the music that was playing. The first take, the music was super soft and sneaky soundly so I pretended I was a spy looking for a secret artifact in a compartment in the walls behind a statue. The second take reminded me of Hunchback of Notre Dame when Esmeralda sings “God Help the Outcast” so I reacted that out. The last take happened when I was approaching the Nave. The music started soft like before but wasn’t sneaky. It was more like a prompting to go forward so I went where others just passed by. When I turned into the Nave the music grew louder and louder while the brass players made it powerful and the music was adding on the breath-taking beauty of the Nave.  It was so cool having a soundtrack while looking around the cathedral.

When I exited out of the cathedral, I decided to head back to the Conteh house.

Fun and musical tourist kind of day, haha :)

Friday - York

(Sorry but I'm running out of cool little introductions about how the following will be written as if it happened today but it didn't but I think you've caught on by now. At least hopefully you have. Yeah. This is starting to get awkward so I will continue now)

Friday August 3^rd:

Today was a traveling day bigger then normal. This morning, I finished packing up my last minute things, said my goodbyes to Juliet, Rufus, Marylin, Hardy, and Aticus, and then was off to Peterborough. I made it to the station and met up with Jo Conteh and her son Ben so they could pick up my luggage before I continued up to York.

The train up to York was PACKED. Probably because it was a Friday and there were quite a few families going on a weekend holiday. I ended up having to stand in the little section between the trains with a few people. There was a elderly lady, a middle-aged guy, and another guy who was about my age. Both guys and I chatted about where we were going, the weather being so sunny, what we were studying at university (the middle-aged guy talked about what he graduated with), and so on. Somewhere towards the end of our chatting, the guy thought that the young guy and I were traveling together and asked us if we were. We both said at the time that we were not. The guy also added that it was a shame too. Sadly we were going to different places, but it still was a delightful thing to hear :)

Eventually both guys got off the train and about 30 minutes later I arrived in York. After I got my map (free and it was a fantastic map), I went to see York Minster. This minster is famous for all the stained-glass windows, and there defiantly were TONS. All very beautiful. But the best part of the visit was that they allowed you to take pictures! I was SO grateful for that! So when I get the pictures posted, you’ll not only see York Minster, you’ll have an idea what St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey look like inside. I got so carried away with picture taking, I didn’t see the one sign that said “No photography in the Crypt” Oops. Well, no one said anything so you guys will be able to see some of that as well :P

The then made my way to the Jorvick Viking Center. On the way, there were street performers I saw. Two girls were singing Green Day songs and a solo performer with incredible violin skills. The center was not so busy when I entered so I got my ticket real fast and went downstairs for the exhibition. The floor was made of glass so we could see the replica of what was found in the site when it was first discovered.  There were multiple screens with movies about the Vikings and windows displaying the different artifacts that were found from the shopping market ruins we were “standing” on.

Then I went on the ride. I timed it perfectly so I got to have a whole cart to myself. The beginning part was the whole time-machine feel of jumping back to the past. They had both still and animated figures of the vikings and had a commentator that spoke to some of them. The first one we “spoke” with was someone who made things from bones. He was finishing up with a comb he made and it looked like a comb today. Just a lot more decorative. The ride went into the village to see how people would build their homes, going through the market, and we went inside a house too. We “talked” with a guy who was making tools to build his house, a lady who was arguing with her husband about what they were having for dinner, and then lastly a guy who was using the toilet. When I was coming up to the toilet guy, I thought he was yelling at the chickens to get out of his field, but nope. I was way off. After the ride, I continued through the exhibition where they had more artifacts of different craftsmen with little videos of actors who talked to you about their skill, and they had some bones with fact sheets explaining what scientists learned from them. Finally, I talked with one of the staff about Viking money. He said that their curreny system was nothing like any modern day currency. They only had silver coins and if there was something cheaper then a silver coin, they’d cut the coin down to the right price. Then after I gave him 1.5 pounds, he made me a Viking coin and also gave me a special Olympic coin with a funny Viking guy on it.

After the center, I went to my last attraction. The Castle Museum, but it wasn’t really a castle. It was a museum about the Victorian era. I accidentally went through the one exhibit backwards so I’ll explain what I saw in the correct order. They had different sections about how different things evolved into our modern things. They had a section where they displayed what kitchens looked like, bathrooms, baby clothes, wedding dresses, and others. At the end, they had a huge section that recreated what a Victorian street looked like. They had carriages with a wax figured horse and carriage driver, shops with some you could into, a police station, boarding school, clock-maker’s workshop, and they had sounds playing dogs barking, cats meowing when it was “night” and then the lights changed to look like morning was coming and they played sounds of people walking through the streets.  It was super fun and awesome!

The other side of the building had an exhibit about both World Wars, more fashion, and a section similar to the Victorian streets but in the 60s. Can you guess what the last thing was for the exhibit? Yes, of course, York Dungeon. They didn’t have a way to go around, if you wanted out, you had to go that way. So I just sped-walked through it, trying really hard to not listen to the screaming girls, the scary sounds and figures. Luckily, it wasn’t a very long part of the exhibit. When I got closer to the end, I noticed a group of Italian students (what did I tell you? I’m being stalked by school groups) who were trying to get a group picture. I offered to take a picture, one serious and a funny picture. After that, everyone said thanks and the boys were being super silly with their thanks saying I was an angel sent to them with their hopeless problem. Though it was ridiculous, it was still entertaining to hear :P

Before the museum café closed, I bought a chicken roast sandwich and a cherry coconut pastry for a Linner (lunch/dinner). The pastry was SO yummy! But the sandwich was only OK. So you see kids, that’s why dessert comes after dinner. Because even if dinner lets you down, dessert always makes up for it.

When I got back to Peterborough, Jo picked me up from the station and we went back to her house. After I got my electronic stuff charging, got my things out for bed, we all had dinner and I got to see Aly again and officially met Alice and Ben. After dinner, we all watched the match that decided who would play in the gold-medal match or bronze-medal match. It was a fantastic and very intense game. Great Britain’s Andy Murray won and will play for gold. We all got excited about that (yes even I did).

Till next time!

Wednesday: Stratford-Upon-Avon

The following is thoughts of the writer that will be presented in present tense when it is in fact WAY past tense. Have fun and enjoy.

Wednesday August 1:

Today I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon. When I got out of the station, I had to walk across town to get to the information center. I bought my tickets and a map then was off to be a tourist.

I came across this big Shakespeare memorial (I think it was the one used in “Gnomeo and Juliet”). In the center was a tall monument was a statue of Shakespeare sitting in a chair posing in an epic fashion. There were four statues surrounding the Shakespeare monument, all characters from plays. Two of them I didn’t recognize but the other two I knew. Lady Macbeth and Hamlet.

When I finished looking at the statues, I proceeded to New Place/Nash’s House. The place where Shakespeare spent the last several years of his life. It was pretty quiet when I walked in which meant I got to enjoy the house almost all to myself. In the back of the house, they had an archeological site of the original Shakespeare’s New Place (the house I was walking through was Nash’s House, either Shakespeare’s daughter or granddaughter’s husband’s house). I continued my way through looking at the garden and the exhibit they had about emotions and values in Shakespeare’s time (money/greed, love/lust/, and so on).

I then made my way to Shakespeare’s birthplace. As I was walking, I saw/heard some street performers singing/playing all kinds of music. One duo was playing some jazz, and another was playing a cool arrangement of Set Fire to the Rain. There were also some people doing tricks. There was one girl who was doing a trick where she sat and balanced on a bamboo stick! Mk I see I’m going to have to include a picture of this:

Sorry, not letting me rotate.

See? Oh c’mon, you’ve got to admit this is cool!

Anyways, I went to see the birthplace of Shakespeare. They first had you go through an exhibition about Shakespeare’s childhood and how he can to be the famous Shakespeare. Apparently there was a huge possibility that he could have been killed in his youth when a plague broke out killing mainly children. Somehow though, Shakespeare managed to avoid it. But can you imagine what the English world would be like without Shakespeare?

When the exhibition was over, we went into the actual house. Size-wise it was similar to the normal townhouses in London. The first room we entered in was rarely used. Its main purpose was to show off how wealthy the family was. The second room we entered was the father’s workshop where he made gloves. They had replicas that we could try on. One was like a mitten, another was like a normal glove we have today, but the last one was a bit different.  It was a three fingered glove used for riding. When I tried that one on, it was like my hand turned into a hoof but still with an opposable thumb. The rest of the house was similar to a modern day house, just you know old-fashioned.

I then took a small snack break before taking off to the final house I wanted to see. Anne Hathaway (no, not the actress. Shakespeare’s wife)’s cottage. As I was walking, I passed by what I guess is a popular statue of a jester. Took some pictures of him, then continued on. HOLY COW the cottage was far away. It was it’s own little village outside of Stratford-Upon-Avon. It rained a bit which was a nice cool down for me. When I got to the cottage FINALLY, I quickly went through it, and then had to book it back to the station to make my train.

Luckily, I made it in time for my train and got back to the Johnsons  just fine.