The Strangest Play Known To Man

I love my cat. She is the most adorable thing int he world--but when it comes to human-animal relationships, there are definitely boundaries. The play War Horse, however, would disagree. Monday night, as a group we went to go see this production, and I'm not going to lie--it was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen in my entire life. It's a story about a boy named Albert and his horse, Joey. Joey however, gets drafted into the war as a war horse and its up to Albert to reunite with his beloved horse once again. The entire time Caitlin and I honestly could not figure out if Albert was supposed to be mentally challenged, or if it was just the horrible way in which the actor who played Albert spoke. Either way, it was the cheesiest and strangest play I've ever seen and that play really made me question where our money is going in this program. But, I must admit that the puppeteering in the play was really cool and sometimes I even forgot that the people were there (all of the animals in the play were puppets--including the horses).

All in all, definitely a strange night.

Tuesday, we woke up and got ready to go on our hike with George

--this adorable old man who is in the Wansworth Stake Presidency here in London. Well, being an honorary member of dorm 4, I ran a little late, and Caitlin, Emma, Macy, Jenny and I BARELY made it onto the train on time to get to the lovely English countryside. Well, actually, most of us barely made it--Macy got lost on the way there and didnt make it onto the bus and it was so so sad. but kind of funny. Anyways, we eventually got to our destination and embarked out onto the hike with George and his two brothers as our guides. Despite the cold weather, the scenery was gorgeous and I loved every second of our excursion--minus the hike up the extremely steep hill---I almost slipped because it was so steep. I wouldnt have been surprised if the hill itself turned into a 90 degree angle. After a picnic by a little stream and some buffalo, stops at a few random places and a food shop, we eventually made it back to the train station after hiking 9.6 miles. My calves definitely felt the aftermath of that hike for the next few days.

In this picture, I highly resemble your classic BYU student...tennis shoes and all. So attractive.

(our tour guides--the three brothers Chittock)

That night, we came home and had a very delicious dinner--spaghetti, broccoli and salad--and then Terri made us the best cookies I've ever had in my life! After dinner, I took a nap and then some of us went and saw the new Alice in Wonderland. I loved it! It was such a good movie and I highly recommend it to everyone. Have I mentioned that I love Johnny Depp's movies? He's such a great actor.

Sad story: on our way home from the movie, I spilled Diet Coke in my purse and it got all over my camera. I didnt realize it had spilled until I got home, so I took out my camera, cleaned it off, turned it on, and--nothing. It's completely dead. I tried putting it in a bowl of rice to sick out the water, but it was no good. I'm so sad about my little camera.... Time to go shopping!

Wednesday, we woke up at 6AM to have breakfast and get ready for our day trip. I got to sit in the back of the bus and my experience was tarnished by our bus driver Tony, who doubled as a tour guide and felt the need to narrate our entire drive through the already very familiar London while we all tried to sleep. Luckily, I had earplugs so I was able to peacefully slumber until we arrived at our first destination--Stourhead. Here we saw the temples of Hercules and Apollo. The Temple of Apollo was very well known amongst our group because its the setting for the famous scene between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice where Darcy confesses his love. This picture may ring a few bells to P&P fans:

unfortunately, however, when I was there, the temple looked like this:

not quite as romantic... stupid scaffolding.

Fortunately, however, the sun was out so we were able to enjoy really great views of the rest of the garden, the lake, and the temple of Hercules.

After Stourhead, we made our way on over to Jane Austen's house! Given that I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, I really enjoyed this part of our trip and I even got an old copy of Pride and Prejudice that apparently was a gift to a woman named Betty. After Jane Austen's House, we drove over to Winchester. Now, in Winchester the highlight of our trip was supposed to be the Cathedral, however I'm not going to lie--I'm completely sick of cathedrals. They're all the same to me now. Luckily Winchester Cathedral had Jane Austen's grave so that made it semi-interesting, however after taking pictures of Jane's memorial and headstone, we left to go to Subway since we were all hungry. There, we were served by a very friendly British young man who had a great time making fun of our accents. We were thrilled when we heard that our time in Winchester was going to be cut by half an hour (they always give us far more time than we actually need in each of our destinations) and that we were going to be back home earlier that night. Before we knew it, we were all back home at the centre and I spent the night hanging out with my roommates before hitting my pillow.

(us in front of Jane Austen's house--even though it looks like a brick wall, I promise, it's really a house.)

Thursday, we woke up and had our Shakespeare class and afterwards we all did a little bit of homework for the afternoon....I tried to finish reading Wuthering Heights, but due to my lack of sleep this week, I ended up falling asleep and taking a little nap before dinner. We had chicken with mango salsa, rice with pine nut, this salad with mandarin oranges, kiwis, pecans and some sort of mango dressing, and green beans and it was a really delicious and healthy meal. After dinner, Emma, Caitlin, Macy and I all left to go see Les Miserables! We got to the theater and got some good tickets and candy from Cool Britannia. I really loved the show, but I must admit that it didn't change my life like everyone had told me it would. My favorite part was definitely Maurice or Marion or whatever the main guy's name was--he was very attractive. As was the colored vest man who leads the student's riot. My least favorite part was the general cop man who looked like a rat. I hated that man...but despite his presence I had a really good night.

Funny story: on our way home on the tube, I asked Caitlin if she had finished her entire bag of candy like she predicted she would. After she said no, the British guy sitting next to me says, "you know you shouldn't eat candy... it's bad for your teeth. The sugars get all caught up in between them." I, shocked that a Brit was giving me advice on how to take care of my teeth, said, "yeah, I think I'll be alright.... I floss a lot." He says in reply, "Flossing?? Yeah, we don't do that over here... that must be an American thing." Yeah, I can TELL!