Step Back in Time

Wednesday-Thursday January 20-21st- This post is going to be another picture filled one with captions by them. Just think about it as a comic strip of my life here in London! Most of these pictures are from a Day Trip that the whole class went on on Wednesday to visit sites at Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath. All of which have very interesting histories about them. And also included are random little escapades that I went on today after regular classes. These include exciting things like finding a Peter Pan statue in the park on my run, cute houses, and seeing Les Miserable. Enjoy!

First is a picture of the morning bus to Stonehenge! We left the BYU center at 7.30AM and then had a 3 hour bus drive to the mysterious rocks that no one knows where they came from. My personal opinion is that God and Jesus while creating the earth decided to have some fun with it's future inhabitants and placed these rock in the middle of nowhere England to confuse us. This theory is also true for the Easter Island Heads and the platypus.









Here are some shots of the great stones themselves! As they say at Stonehenge, "Stonehenge ROCKS!" The white patches on the grass is not dead grass, it is snow. The one snowy day this week had to be the day we stood outside the longest. It was still very fun though :]













After this lovely possibly alien created formation, we hopped back onto the bus (or coach as private buses are called here)and headed to Salisbury. What we looked at in this adorable little town was their cathedral, which was made in 1250 AD and is the home to a copy of the original Magna Carta (we weren't allowed to take pictures of this). It also has the highest reaching spire in all of Europe that was pre-1400s. Ignore the scaffolding, it will be in most pictures from now on my teachers said. They are already preparing for the Olympics here in 2012 and are fixing everything. The nativity scene shown disturbs me. I don't know why I like it so much because its really creepy up close. They celebrate the Christmas season until February 6th which is their Saints Day. So the nativity stays up till then. It is made all from Paper Mache. Next, there is a picture of my favorite stained glass there. It is commemorating all fallen soldiers and has very touching symbolism. All original stain glass save one pain was destroyed in the Puritan revolt so all there is modern work.
























Our next and last stop of the day was Bath. This is where the Romans found natural hot springs and claim them to be a miracle from their sun god and built a temple around them and said the waters had healing powers if swam in or drunk. Nicholas Cage also has a house here. Any Jane Austen fans would remember this place for the setting of two of her books, "Northhanger Abby" and "Persuasion". The water that is for drinking there has 42 minerals present in it and has been believed to heal all ailments for many years now. I tried a tiny sip and about wanted to puke it tasted so gross. I better never get sick again for drinking it, if it ddoesnt heal then my taste buds suffered for nothing. The Assembly Rooms are not the same ones that Jane Austen sat in while writing her books because the oriinal one was blown up in WW2.























After classes on Thursday there wasn't much time to go out and do something big but I did do a lot of small fun things :] Went and got Gelato with some classmates, saw the cutest pastel colored houses while out shopping on Portabello Rode, finding the Peter Pan statue in the park by my house, and seeing Les Miserables! I do get lonely here sometimes, like I don't really fit into anyone's group of friends here but I'm sure that will come with time. And I am having fun anyways.





That's all for now! There will be plenty more soon to come! Have a great day!