London Love

I love London. I really do, especially living across the street from Kensington Gardens in Hyde Park for three weeks and very close to Kensington Palace as well. I wish I could explain everything that went on in London and all the things that I did, but there is just so many that hopefully these pictures will be worth those thousand words.

Cambridge University - Punting

Country Walk - Pouring Rain at first, but beautiful!

Trafalgar Square

William Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well at the Globe Theatre

The Royal Ballet School

My letter I wrote to principal dancer in The Royal Ballet: Sarah Lamb (short story: we both are ballet dancers and we both share (almost) the same name although mine is without an "h". So I wanted to meet her while I was there in London, but she wasn't there, so a lady suggested that I write a letter to her - and so I did.)

King's Cross Station: Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter!!)

British Museum

William Shakespeare's Richard III (Kevin Spacey played Richard III - no big deal...)

Portobello Market

Abbey Road (The Beatles)

Buckingham Palace

Kensington Palace

London has been one of my favorite places. I had such a wonderful time exploring it and having these wonderful adventures.

A Tribute to Harry Potter

Harry Potter and its entire series is known and probably will always be known as an era. So many people grew up reading the books and even watching the movies. It has been one of my favorite series that I have read. It is still one of those that you can read over again and again and there is still so much more you can get out of it. This is an English major here, also an avid reader (although I do need to get back into reading books).

The very night that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 came out in theaters, I felt so lucky that I had been in London. The birthplace of the Harry Potter series (sort of). My friends that I made on this study abroad trip and I took our epic trip to see the midnight showing of the last film. It was absolutely incredible. We got there quite early because we were able to see a

free showing of the first part of the film before we saw the second part. I cannot tell you the excitement I was feeling. I will proudly admit that I am a huge fan/nerd of Harry Potter.

We received our 3D glasses and I had the time of my life watching it in IMAX 3D in London!! Whoa! I do know that Harry Potter is not over, as I'm sure that most people have said and heard, that it will still be around because the books are still there as well as the movies. I love Harry Potter.

Advertisement on double decker!

Premier seats!

The whole group at the theater!

Hello, London!

As you possibly know, I do not keep up with my blog as I should. I am a little behind, but hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon. I may not be able to describe every detail, but optimistically, you don't have to read a novel this time!

We are now visiting London. It is such a fast-paced city like so many other big cities in the world. As we were on our way to London, we stopped and visited Stonehenge. At first, I wasn't looking

forward to it, but when I was actually there, there was this feeling that kind of hit me in the face and I thought to myself, "Whoa, I'm here standing right by Stonehenge. So cool!"

After Stonehenge, we went to Chawton to visit Jane Austen's country home. It is absolutely

lovely and almost like a dream country home. There was this beautiful garden around and it

smelled so good with all of the lavender and roses and other beautiful types of plants and flowers.

It was really a picturesque place to be in. I didn't want to leave.

A friend and I visited Oxford for a day. It was so much fun. As long as we stick to a buddy

system, we can almost go anywhere we want. It is such a beautiful city and school. I think I might want to go there someday to study. Also, some parts of Harry Potter were filmed in one of Oxford's colleges, Christ Church - the staircase to the Great Hall as well as THE Great Hall. C.S.

Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien visited each other in The Eagle and Child Pub.

Some of the girls in the group had the chance to plan for a day to go to the London Temple. We were able to walk around in the grounds and some of us did baptisms for the dead. This is when men and women who are worthy to go to the temple, are able to stand in for dead people and have them be baptized into the church. Most of the names are given by people who have been working on their genealogy. It was a wonderful experience.

This past week after our classes one day, we went to the Tower of London. It was incredible! My favorite part was the Crown Jewels. It has so many crowns and precious gold and gems of the

royalty in that part of the museum. I also went into the Torture Tower and the Bloody Tower.

The Torture Tower was interesting, but I thought that the Bloody Tower was a little more exciting. In the Bloody Tower, the story of the two princes who were murdered in the tower was really interesting. There is still speculation of how they died. In the 1930s, the boys' bones were found and there is still research to try and figure out exactly who killed them and how.

The next day, we visited Westminster Abbey. It was so wonderful because that is where Prince William and Kate got married, as well as Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and many more

royals were married. Also, there were a lot of sovereign coronations that took place there. It was so cool to walk through the Abbey where so many people have walked through there.

Some girls and I saw the musical, Wicked, after Westminster Abbey. It was amazing as it is expected, but I saw it in London and it was very interesting and exciting to hear them speak

with a British accent instead of the American accent that is mainly heard and used in the US.

So far, London has been amazing. I know I said I wouldn't write a novel, but I guess I sort of lied, and I kind of did... at least it has pictures!!

"Oh - who can ever be tired of Bath?"

--Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

So I am a little behind on my blog, I know. For this post I would love to tell you about the day I spent in Bath. Just to warn you, I may not remember everything that we did, and I probably won't remember all of the buildings I took a picture of. Know this that Bath is a very busy and wonderful place to visit; even just for a day. We traveled from Wales to Bristol and then to Bath and only stayed one day. The city of Bath is absolutely beautiful. The buildings are this honey golden color which makes the whole city look very rich. I did not taste the hot, mineral water that Bath is known for. I decided that it's not worth the money to drink it. First, we got a tour of the entire city. We learned that the buildings used to be white, but because of the type of stone, they changed to the honey, golden color.

Bath Abbey

Kings and Queens Baths

Beautiful buildings

We learned that different societies in the 16, 17 and 1800s, mainly the higher social class societies, would come to Bath and bathe in the 136 degree water. Not only would they bathe, but Bath was the place to socialize and gossip. I suppose it could also have been the Las Vegas in that time.

The Assembly Rooms

One of my favorite places there was the Jane Austen Centre. It is a small museum that mainly talked about the times that Jane Austen would come and visit for a while. She actually didn't like Bath at all that much. I think in her novel, Northanger Abbey, she made fun of the socialites and

all of the things that happen there because almost everyone that visited Bath for a while, everyone wanted to be noticed, especially the women.

Jane Austen Centre with the Jane Austen statue

Bath was absolutely amazing! There are tons of little shops, big shops, and a lot of street performers entertaining all of the visitors. It was a wonderful experience.