Harry Potter and Prince William

Sunday-Wednesday February 14-17th- Today was the day after my trip to Spain and was one of the most trying Sunday's I have ever had to go through. I got home around 3 am Sunday morning from Spain and had to wake up for Church at 7. I very much wanted to sleep through church but I had to teach the Sunday school for the Sunbeams. And as it turned out, play the piano in Primary. Originally they told the two of us who are playing the piano we had 2 weeks to practice but they only gave us one and we were gone for the majority of that one practice week. It was the most awful thing ever. I can't play, I was dead tired, and I was surprised. The worst part is that I have to play again! All the practice in the world won't be able to help, curse me for not staying with piano lessons when I was younger!
O well, it can only go up from where I'm at now. Monday was a class day and I stayed inside all day long trying to catch up on the homework that I missed doing while I was in Spain. I am on Kitchen Duty this week so I, with my group of seven people, have to help cook, make the salad, and set the table for breakfast and dinner as well as washing all the dishes. It's not too bad actually, I have to wake up early and get home early to get everything ready and then stay an hour after dinner cleaning, but when dancing and listening to music with the rest of my group (those who come at least, some don't help but so is such in any group work), all the chores are fun! After cleaning up dinner Monday night, we had a Valentines Day Party! We played the party game where you have a character's name written on your back so you can't see it but have to ask others questions to find out who you are, but with a twist! Each name a person had, had a match. The couples were all characters who we have dealt with during the Study Abroad so far. This is my couple (we were the 4th people to find our match, yay 4th place! hehehe) as can be seen, I am 'Mr.Darcy' and Jenny was 'Elizabeth Bennett.' It was so much fun! Other couples were Apollo and Daphne, PB and J (that was my favorite one! And yes, it does pertain to the program, as PB&J sandwiches are what we have for lunch almost everyday :] ), Zeus and Hera, Peter Pan and Wendy, Marjorie Pay and Gordan B., and Doc Mac-F and Mrs. Mac-F (our director and his wife). After that fun game we decorated cookies! Here are my cookies :] I was quite proud of the rose bouquet one :] Valentine's Day s my favorite holiday and this party was a fun way to celebrate it :] Tuesday was another class and homework day, though I didn't get much done. It's hard to do homework when there is so many more fun things to do. By the time Wednesday came around, I was regretting not doing as much homework as I could have done because starting Wednesday, there has been a day trip with the entire program every day the rest of the week.
Our first stop on Wednesday was Blenheim Palace. This is the residance of the Duke of Marlborough. The name may not mean anything to Americans but it is one of the most well known names here in the UK. People everywhere do know of one of the members of this family, Winston Churchill. Winston was born here and I envy him very much. The grounds of this palace was the closest thing to the Garden of Eden I have ever seen. The weather was a bit foggy which made the grounds even more mysterious and enjoyable. Enjoy these pictures!



This is me playing on one of the Sphynxes in the Statue Garden, I think that with my pose and the two girls in the background, it looks like an album cover of an 80s song. "And now! Presenting Kalyn and the Sphynx-ettes!!" Hehehe... :] If you can't imagine it, picture bigger hair and leggings added in.








This is a cute little waterfall found while walking the vast gardens after our tour of the house. I am with Reesa, Kira and Brittany.






This is Brittany, Reesa, Aarin, Kira and me hugging a 1200 year old British oak tree on the grounds. the pictures following are a few beautiful landscape pictures of the grounds:








View of the Statue Garden and the West wing of the Palace.








Fog over the lake.








Tulips budding up. February is the month of flowers here, all over they are popping up and blooming, it's absolutly beautiful.







The Boat House over the lake. Ducks and swans were swimming and we even saw two men fishing. The lake is private to the house so perhaps it was even the Duke and his son fishing? That would have been exciting if it were.






After visiting Blemheim, we went to the city of Oxford and Oxford University! After we arrived on the coach (charter bus) to Oxford, we had 3 hours of free time to roam around before our next class activity. I went around with my friend Cameron and saw so many cool things! The first thing we saw was this pub: Now, it may seem like any other pub, but it is special. This pub was the meeting place of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The two authors were good friends and discussed their books and religions here at this very pub! Exciting huh? The idea for Tolkien's Orcs is said to have been born here (probably after a few pints hehehe...)
After the pub, we went and wandered around the Ashmolean Museum and saw many interesting artifacts. It wasn't a terribly large museum but still a very good one.
Our next stop was an exciting one for me because it was used as Gringotts Bank in the Harry Potter movies! Well, the inside was and I didn't go in but I saw the outside! The Bodleian Library is it's name and it is a collection of buildings all used for Oxford's main library. Very pretty architecture, here is a picture of the outside. Just think, the nasty looking goblins are just behind those doors... Before continuing on seeing Harry Potter sights, Cam and I popped into an Oxford shop to buy a sweatshirt and found other members of our group doing the same thing. Did you know that Oxford University was founded in 1249 AD? It is disputably the oldest college in Europe. Another fun fact I learned about Oxford is that it is not just one college, there are as many as 20 colleges under the name Oxford University. Each is a specialized college with certain education taught, kind of like how I am applying to the Kimball Nursing College in Brigham Young University. My favorite of the colleges is Christ Chrch College for classical studies. This college is the 3rd oldest college build and started it's services in the late 1300s. Why is it my favorite? Becase "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (more commonly called 'Alice in Wonderland') was inspired by it's grounds and a headmaster's daughter? That is true, the author of "Alice" (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll) was a student at Christ Church. While he was there, his headmaster had a daughter named Alice Little. She was quite young and was not allowed in a certain area of the school grounds. The green door in the above picture was always locked for her so she wouldn't wander in. She was reported to spend hours peering into the keyhole trying to get a glimps. The character of the Chesire Cat also is based in truth. Alice Little had a cat who would hope the fence into the forbidden court yard and sit in the branches of the tree as if to taunt her. This was a remarkable thing to see, but not my favorite part.
Is it my favorite because it is home to a library of books dating back to the 1100s? These books are hundreds of years old yet still in prime condition! Normally, visitors are not allowed into Christ Church's Library for the very reason that the books are so old that they mush be handeled with great care but, the Dean of Christ Church is a member of the Stake Presidency of one of the Stakes that BYU students attend and he gave us a private tour with amazing perks. This was just one of them.
His perks that we were blessed to see were all amazing and either of the above activities or countless other things we saw on our tour could have been why Christ Church is my favorite of the Oxford colleges, but mostly because it is my favorite because it is widely known throughout the modern world as HOGWARTS!! Yes my friends, I have been to Hogwarts :] Please follow the picture tour below as I re-enact the private special tour we got!

This hallway is used today as walkways between classes and the dining hall, but who cared about that? What I care about is that this hallway is where Ron makes fun of Hermione after the levitation Charms lesson and she pushes past them crying. Very much and emotion filled walk way.







This staircase may be the most important staircase in the entire history of the entire Wizarding World. It was on these very steps that a young and impressionable Harry Potter acsended from crossing the lake in a small boat up into the Great Hall to be sorted. It was on these very steps that the entire fate of the Wizarding World could have drastically been changed.



Had Harry accepted the friend request given to him by the young Draco Malfoy, the outcome of the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named could have been drastically different. Had Harry not stood true to his newly found friend Ron on these steps that I climbed, the Dark Lord may have prevailed.



But luckily for us, Draco's offer was turned down and Harry proceeded through the door at the top having made a choice that was to affect the entire world.




At the top of those blessed and should be holy stairs, are the doors to the Great Hall. Visitors are only allowed to look through the doors when they are on a normal tour or just walking around the grounds but beacuse of our Mormon hook-ups, we were able to go inside, sit down at our House's table and have tea time. That's right. I ate in the Great Hall while sitting at the Gryffindor table. It may have been the happiest moment of my life to date.
Feel free to take a moment to drink it all in... Even with our special tour, we were not allowed to see the candles float or the ceiling change according to the weather (which thankfully had become blue and sunny by the time we got to Christ Church, but then that is just another wonderful thing about Hogwarts, it's sunny when it needs to be) because the straggling Muggle tourist who occationally poked their heads in may have been too overwhelmed to handel that magical display. We were served Victorian sponge cake, smoked salmon, turkey, and marmalade sandwiches, and hot cocoa. A few maids were acting as our house elves, always bringing more food and cocoa. Dr. MacFarlane (our director) even got up and made a speech to us at the headmaster's podium. It was simply magical. The only downer was I had wanted to be filmed bursting through the doors shouting "TROLL! Troll in the dungeon! Thought you ought to know.... *faint*" while running up the hall, but alas, I was too excited to finally be at Hogwarts that I forgot to do that. Guess I'll just have to go back!
If this Study Abroad is good for anything, it is great for delighting me every time I step out of my house. I never thought I would be happier than I was the day I went to the Globe Theatre, then had that same feeling when I saw a production of "The Phantom of the Opera", then again when I went to Windsor Castle, then again when I went to Hogwarts, and then again on Thursday when the class took a trip to the temple of the Knights Templar. Here is a picture as best I could take it (the church is round and hard to take a picture of)
If you look closely along the wall about half way up you will see small arches in the wall that make little pockets. In between each arch is a face of a person in not a normal church pose or grandeur. The architect of the temple wanted all people to feel welcomed into the building so he designed the wall with comical faces to relax and cheer up all who enter. This is my favorite of the faces: The age old order of knights who have their origins during the Holy Crusades may seem boring and pales in comparison with a tea party at Hogwarts but the temple was not the only thing we did at the Templar Temple. This place is now used not for the knights but for officers of the law. People who want to go into Parliament must be a member of one of the four 'clubs' (not really a club but I can't think of the word they use right now) in order to practice law. We as a class went on a tour of these lawer 'clubs' and it was very interesting. A member of the royal family is always the presiding authority over this orginization and currently the monarch over seeing the 'clubs' is Prince William. The main building is where he was called to be the head and that is where he eats when he comes to check up. We as a class were able to have lunch in the hall that he checks up on things. In the room there is a large oak table that was commitioned to be built and given to the building by Queen Elizabeth I. It is the High Table and is at the very front of the room raised up so everyone can see those who eat at it. Our tour guide at this place even pointed out Prince William's chair for when he pays visits. Guess who was able to have a three course meal serve to her while sitting in Prince William's chair at Queen Elizabeth I's table? That's right, me! While the guide was telling us about the granduer of the table, he assigned me to sit in the Prince's chair. I don't know whay he singled me out to be in the highest seat in the room but I am not complaining! I was seated at the very center of the High Table in a room of about 300 influential law men and women while being served a three course meal by personal waiters. Our meal was as follows (this is the exact wording of the menu): a choice of specialty rolls served with fresh butter, first course was a Suteed Wild Mushroom, Leeks & Cheery Tomato Tartlet topped with Hollandaise sauce, second course was Medaillon of Fillet of Pork, with bubble & squeak & green peppercorn sauce, and dessert was Apple & Sultana [raisin] Crumble with Lemon Ice Cream served with our choice of herbal tea (I picked Peppermint.) I felt just like a Princess, just call me Mrs. Prince William! :] This is a picture of me in Prince William's chair and one of my roommates, Sarah, in Prince Henry's chair.

My royal day was ended with a visit to Charels Dicken's house, which was interesting but nothing compared to a royal lunch. This week has to be one of the best weeks ever to have been. And it's not over yet! Have a great day, you know I will! :]