Royal Wedding, Gongoozling, and Wandsworth Common

Here are a few things I've learned during my first week in London: 

• London and homework do not work well together.
• There's no way to go down the stairs in the London Center quietly. Embrace the creaking. 
• Make sure you know which train it is before you get on.
• American girls seem VERY loud on the Underground compared to the silent British travelers.
• Even though it looks like a quarter, the two-pound British coin is really almost $4. It's still so much easier to spend those coins, though...
• When you're tired enough, you can still fall asleep with the lights on in a room you share with 13 other girls
• If someone asks you if you want to go do something - say YES

These first few days have been a beautiful blur. We've been able to see and do so many wonderful things! And there is so much left to be done. I have no doubt that these next six weeks are going to be over before I know it! London has been good to me so far - not even a drop of rain.

On Wednesday, after many hours of traveling, I finally arrived at 27 Palace Court, otherwise known as the BYU London Center. I've already fallen in love with this beautiful townhouse! It's our dorms, kitchen, dining room, laundry room, and classroom all rolled into one. It's located just north of Hyde Park and close to Notting Hill. 

Due to jetlag, the first day was kind of a blur. Basically we walked around Hyde Park and unpacked to keep us awake as long as possible. I'm happy that I made it all the way to 8:30 before I finally got to go to bed! The next morning we dove right into classes. I'm taking a British Literature class and a Fine Arts class. For the Fine Arts, we're only actually in class once a week - the rest of the time she gives us to visit museums on our own! That's the amazing part of this program - we're given so much freedom to explore London our way. 

So in case you haven't heard, the royal wedding was kind of big deal. People camped out in front of Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace days in advance, just so they could get a glimpse of Kate Middleton or Prince William. The newspapers here detailed every possible aspect of the big day (For example, one article was titled "Charles and Kate team up with iPods to pick wedding music". Fascinating, right?) We went down to Buckingham Palace the night before the wedding and the crowds were insane! 

Some of the girls in the group woke up at 5 A.M. so they would be able to see all the action down at the palace. I was still suffering from a little jet lag, however, and the thought of waking up that early, having to stand for eight hours, and the chance of rain were not at all tempting. Instead I made it down to the palace around nine with another group. It was packed by the time we got there, but it was fun to be in that excited atmosphere! Even the marching bands walking by, in their red coats and black fur hats, were enough to make the crowd cheer and rush the nearest fence. We left Buckingham Palace because we wanted to watch the ceremony in one of the nearby parks where they were showing it on huge screens. 

Buckingham Palace

As we walked down the street, someone told us that the bride would be driving past this very spot on her way to Westminster Abbey. We sat by the fence for about an hour waiting - and it was worth it! She drove by right in front of us - no more than 20 feet away. She was so beautiful, and waved and smiled at all the people lined on the street. It was so fun to be there and see some of the wedding in person! 

Kate Middleton! You can kind of see her white veil in the back windshield...

After she passed we made our way to Hyde Park to watch the rest of the ceremony on the screen. This was another great experience! It was packed - we heard later there were as many as 300,000 people watching there. People brought picnics and were popping champagne (There weren't very many people who were actually watching - I think a lot of them just loved the opportunity to drink at eleven in the morning :) ) When they said "I will," everyone cheered and waved their flags - the English people LOVE Will and Kate. You can still see the flags with the newlywed's faces on them all over the city. 

Hyde Park Screens

That night, a group of us decided to go to see Wicked. It's so nice to be here for as long as we are because we have so much flexibility, and can get last minute tickets to see all the shows! We were able to pay the discounted student price, but it wasn't sold out so we had amazing seats. And yes, I realize some would consider the amount of times I've seen Wicked excessive, but I loved it just as much this time as I did the first time! 

I think we probably walked close to 10 miles on Saturday. We started out with a group walk through the canals. A British person would have called us "gongoozlers", the technical term for people who like watching the activity on the canals. (The joggers on the canal must have hated us - our group of 45 couldn't really get the hang of standing on one side.) It was beautiful - there are so many painted boats and pretty bridges and beautiful trees and plants. The walk took us up Primrose Hill and from the top we could see out over all of London. ("Hill" - we Utahns laugh that this mound would be considered a hill :) )

Regent's Canal

Primrose Hill, overlooking London

The walk ended near Camden Town, one of the many street markets in London, and we were able to eat lunch there. It had to have been one of the most diverse places I've ever eaten at! There were stalls of Indian food, Turkish food, Peruvian food, Brazilian food, African food, Japanese food, and traditional fish and chips, just to name a few. For dessert we tried "cake pops", which had to have been one of the best things I've ever eaten. It's basically a brownie (a perfectly moist and wonderful brownie) covered in chocolate and sprinkles on a popsicle stick. Mm, just writing this makes me want another one! 

Cake pops

After lunch, we took another walk through Regent's Park. It was a huge park that had the typical English green fields, river, and huge trees, and also had the London Zoo and these beautiful mansions throughout the park. There were so many people there enjoying the beautiful weather - I could have spent the whole day sitting in that park. 

We finished off the day in the National Gallery. (I'm not kidding - every day is action packed!) It was kind of surreal to see these masterpieces in person! I saw so many that I had studied in my art history class. I am in love with the impressionist paintings, especially those by Renoir and Monet. For my Fine Arts class we have to visit seven different museums, including this one. For part of my assignments, I have to go back sometime this week so I can sketch and analyze two of the works. Even though it's homework, I feel so lucky that I get credit for spending time in one of the world's greatest museums!

Today was our first Sunday, and I already know that going to church here is going to be one of my favorite parts of the study abroad! They split our group into smaller groups of six or seven and send us to wards all over the city. Our group left at 8:45 for our 10 o'clock meeting, and it was an adventure - let me tell you. First, the Circle Line of the Underground was closed so we had to take a slight detour in order to get to the right stop. Because of this detour, we were afraid we were going to miss our train, so we made a spectacle of ourselves by sprinting through the train station to catch it. We made it. In fact, we sat on the train for 10 minutes before it started moving. The train was finally pulling up to our stop, and we were all huddled around the door waiting for it to open. Unfortunately, we didn't know that the train isn't the same as the Tube, and we have to push a button in order to open the doors. We didn't push the button, so the train sailed right through the station. Two trains later, we made it back and finally made it to church. 

On the train... 

Church in Utah provides us with a seemingly endless supply of priesthood holders, pianists, and Primary teachers, so this small branch in Wandsworth Commons is going to be a new experience for me. There couldn't have been more than 40 people in Sacrament meeting. They're so grateful for the BYU students coming to their ward, even for the simple addition of a pianist! Bishop Aseimu, from Ghana, got us immediately involved in our church service. I was the chorister in Sacrament meeting and all of us bore our testimonies. I was also called as a Primary teacher! (Primary kids with British accents? Deal.) I am so excited for the experience in this ward - the humble testimonies that were shared were so sweet and sincere, I know I have a lot to learn from these people! 

After church, a few of us decided to complete another one of the required London Walks we have to do. We walked past the Parliament Building and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and St. James Palace. 

St. James Palace

I mentioned before that London and homework are not harmonious, as I'm sure you could guess. It is so hard to find the motivation to stay home and be productive when at any time there are a million fun things I could be doing in the city! I guess I'll be the one reading my books on the Tube and furiously writing papers before I go to bed. I'll get sleep when I come home, right? 

I've only been here for five days, but it feels like so much longer than that. However, I know that Hymn #226, "Improve the Shining Moments" (we sang this in our Welcome Fireside today) will soon be more than true:

"Time flies on wings of lightning,

We cannot call it back;

It comes, then passes forward

Along its onward track;

And if we are not mindful,

The chance will fade away;

For life is quick in passing--

'Tis as a single day."

I just have to take advantage of every moment, because it's going to be over before I know it! 

(There are so many other things I could talk about! Morning runs in Hyde Park, Waffle Palace, Piccadilly Circus, my very own Paddington Library card...)