Day Twelve:

Can I share with you how wonderful it feels to have a deadline and feel like there's no possible way you can meet it, but then miraculously finnish all your homework about 10 minutes before class and be able to sit there and breathe? Wow... that is a wonderful feeling.



After class I went on a walk with Karly, Kourtney, David, and Katie. These are the only pictures I have to show. Karly and Kourtney had to leave our walk early to get back for kitchen duty (I'm not looking forward to that!) and they missed the best part... a beautiful church called Southwark Cathedral. It is on the opposite side of the Thames River and is one of the neatest cathedrals I've been in. It is majestic and yet somehow simple. The outside was beautiful, but I liked the inside even better. There seem to be a lot of people buried there... their tombstones pattern the floor. One of these people is William Shakespeare's brother and a few of his contemporary writers/theatre masters. Shakespeare is not buried here, but as this was the church he attended while in London (it is only about 5 mintues from the Globe Theatre) they have created a beautiful memorial to him there. There was a sweet old man at the Cathedral who saw that we were students and took the time to tell us a little about why this random memorial was in this particular cathedral.

David and I in front of the Southwark Cathedral. I wish you could see the umbrella in his hand. Its one of those whoppers... the kind that certainly won't filp inside out, as mine unfortunately did a couple times today. It has been so rainy and cold. Mom- what was I thinking only bringing one pair of jeans and a couple cardigans?!

We passed some other neat things on our walk... the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, the London Dungeon, City Hall, the Chink, the Globe, the Tate Modern Museum, and the National Theatre. Turns out the London Bridge really did fall over during a battle when St. Olaf passed underneath, ignoring the shower of arrows from above. They hooked ropes to the supports and continued upstream and the bridge collapsed. Another intersting fact: the Chink is the name of the jail on the South of the Thames. The area was full of crime, prostitution, and all that is anit-Provo so the jail was quite necessary. This name (the Chink) is where we get teh common phrase of being thrown in the chink. Maybe these little facts will help someone someday in "Jeopardy" or "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".

This random picture is of a replica of the Golden Hine, the ship which Sir Francis Drake used to circumnavigate the world over 400 years ago. I thought it was cool to see a big pirate-looking ship in the middle of big buildings, but really there's no other significance there.

Well, we made it back just barely in time for dinner. I ate with all the little kids. They are more fun than the students any day. I think they make me feel like I'm at home. Mitzy, Grace, and Danny Holland and Franny Benfell are my little buddies. They 3 older boys, Jake H, Jacob B, and Matt B are really polite and funny boys, but they're not as interested in the attention of a 20-year-old girl. They little ones are adorable though.

After dinner I did some planning, trying to figure out what I need to get done and want to see the rest of this week. There are some free dance events I want to see, and I'll probably end up going to a show (we were talking about Wicked, but I think that's being postponed... maybe the Opera the "Marraige of Figaro"?) It was nice just to collect my thoughts and not be stressed about reading for class.

However, I felt like I needed to get out for a bit, so Adrianne and I decided to walk down the street and go shopping for a bit. Our justification was that we needed something a bit warmer to wear. (Most of the students went on some Jack the Ripper tour, but apparently it was a flop, so I'm glad I didn't go.) The mall ended up closing as soon as we got there (8:00!) which was a bummer but maybe a blessing in disguise because I was finding way to many tempting things at H&M. We stopped for McFlurries on the way home. Little did you know, but McFlurries in the US are weak-sauce. The ones here have these delicious crunchy things mixed in and only cost 99 pence! So much for eating fancy authentic food. Anyway, it was fun to sit and talk with Adrianne and get to know her better. When I got back I spent a while chatting with Annie (who I sort-of knew in high school). This was just the first day where I feel like I really got to know some people a bit better than the superficial level. I will never be able to find a Becky or Lauren or Jocelyn here, but I think really highly of most of the girls and am grateful that they are all so friendly.

Tomorrow we're leaving for Cambridge bright and early but I have lofty hopes of going running first, so I'm off to bed.