blog blag blug

blogging is a hassle.

because the longer you wait to blog, the more there is to blog and the less you want to try to tackle that blog. like how i wait for three weeks to update a blog while i'm in london doing amazing things everyday.
i could probably say the world "blog" more.

so. blog the last three blog weeks in the a reasonable amount of pictures. go. blog. i don't know why this is blue and underlined. i can't fix it.

porthcurno beach on the west coast. i'm assuming it was the west coast because the only thing they told me about this trip was that we'd be going to "the west." it's near penzance. as in "the pirates of"


thomas hardy's house. (author of far from the madding crowd, return of the native, and tess of the d'ubervilles) jane austen never visited here though if you were wondering.


lauren and anna doing as they were told: "make a thomas hardy was born in this room face"


lyme regis. beautiful coastal town that i was obsessed with. but besides all that the really important thing is that jane austen staged a very pivotal scene in persuasion here. you know. where a girl falls off of a two foot ledge and goes unconscious for a bit. rivoting book by the way. (sarcasm?)


after church on sunday, i take the tube by myself to go to the national gallery and spend a couple of hours being so extremely happy looking at paintings and listening to nice music. last sunday this protest against apartheid in jerusalem was going down on trafalgar square right outside the national gallery.



hailee and myself outside of westminster abbey. this was one of my most favorite places we visited in london. inside they have "poet's corner" where a number of the greatest poets and writers known to the english language are buried. tennyson, dylan thomas, robert browning, chaucer, dickens, etc. it was seriously a spiritual experience for many of us (because we're creeper english majors). it's nice to be in a country that holds the english language and its masters in such reverence and respect. (nerd.)


me at the globe. we saw a performance of a midsummer night's dream here. we were groundlings. which means we stood on the ground. i think that this is how shakespeare was meant to be experienced, it was very interactive and entertaining.



one saturday we went on a country walk with one of the stake presidents. a 9 mile walk. so lovely though.


castle we saw on the walk. it cost too much to go inside. but the outside was nice and castle-y.


blenheim palace. it's baroque. and winston churchill was born here. we got to be in the room where he was born. they have locks of his hair in there (creepy). really beautiful palace though. windy.



oxford man on a bike being oxfordy in oxford.


anna and hailee trying to decipher the most impossible map of oxford in the world. the only map they gave us. nobody could read it.


Christ's church college at oxford. we went to evensong at the cathedral here, it was beautiful.


the new building (which in oxford terms equals 18th century) at the st. magdelane college. c.s. lewis lived here when he was a student at oxford.

(the next three pictures were stolen from holli because my camera died at this portion of the oxford trip)


proof to my mother that i am capable of taking normal pictures. by the river-stream-creek at st. magdelane's that we punted on shortly after.


followed by a not normal picture of us in oxford punting hats!


sara, holli, anna, and myself punting. well actually george there in the back is doing the actual punting.


and finally, here we are at the tower of london with some beef eaters. thanks lauren for this picture. we're right outside the church at the tower where anne boelyn was buried and in the square where she, and a number of other people were beheaded. take that.


whew. form here on out, i will be better at blogging more often so that i can give more detailed accounts of everything. suffice it to say, i love it here. i love the girls i get to play with all day, i love the classes, i love museums, i love plays ("ivanov" seriously changed my life) i love having my life revolve around jane austen's life (sarcasm?), i love the ward i go to, i love the markets (i got two scarves on portobello road today. for a pound each. bam.) i love the food.
so
much
love.

i do miss toilets that actually flush, however.

woo, go london.


conference was amazing today. i cannot go without commenting on that. elder holland's talk especially. church is true kids. the church is true. ahh i love it so much. someday i will write about the ward i go to here.

cheers!

p.s. i have another blog that i started for my london walks class. we have to take various walks around the city and either do write ups or photo essays about them. so if you're interested in a more academic look at my london adventures feel free. http://alisongoeslondon.blogspot.com