Monday March 1st-Today is the start of spring and the sun being out everyday! This is probably the universe's way of celebrating my birthday month, or it could just be spring time has finally ended the coldest winter the UK has seen in 30 years, which ever reason you think is the true one (celebrating my birthday) I'm loving the sunshine!! I have missed it so much from back in California, I'm glad it decided to pay us a visit here. So glad in fact, that I wanted to go out on a walk through the parks around my house and my friend Cam wanted to too! So we went on an adventure trying to get to the National Gallery that took us through three different parks straight to the entrance of the museum. Well... that's how it was supposed to go, we got lost. After leaving the BYU Centre, we walked through Hyde Park as planned but got lost wandering the paths, distracted by the pond that had a lonely paint brush floating in it, statues of mythological beings, the Wellington Arch, a crazy umbrella sculpture, and Buckingham Palace.
Look in the background of this picture and you'll see the London Eye and also Big Ben. This is the view of town from the park across the street from my house to give you an idea of how close to the heart of London I live :] After walking through the park and visiting the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (by far the coolest fountain in all of London),we found a statue of this Greek Hero.
He is supposed to be the great Lord Wellington but I doubt that Lord Wellington would go around taking is armor off and fighting in nothing other than a fig leaf. I assumed that the Hero the artist was trying to portray Wellington as was Achilles rather than Hercules, as was my first guess. This is because he lacks the club and lion skin that tells it is Hercules and he is in the common stance that Achilles is depicted in before his heel gets hit with an arrow. Sorry if that makes no sense, it wouldn't have to me had I not enrolled in my Greek and Roman Mythology class here. I swear, as fun as the class is, it is brainwashing me into noticing references to mythology everywhere I go. It can be fun to know deeper meaning, like here, but it makes my head hurt sometimes trying to think of connections to irrelevant things :]
This is me under the Wellington Arch! We walked through the Military Memorial Garden and this was the entrance to it. It was very touching. There were memorials for almost every war that the English had fought in and also memorials to all the countries who helped in the English's wars. All of these things were where we were supposed to go, the first stop of being lost was Buckingham Palace. Good thing to find when lost isn't it?
It was a surprise to me to see this but a pleasant one. There were a million tourists there and it's not even tourist season, I'd hate to see it during the summer (well, hate to see the crowds, I'd love to be back here in the summer :] ) I wonder if the Royals living inside ever get annoyed with all these people? Maybe I'll just have to marry into the family to find out :] I'd be OK with than! Hehehe.... In front of the Palace were some more statues of mythological beings and a pretty fountain. After looking at these entertaining things, Cam and I continued on our walk to the museum. Only we continued in the wrong way. There is a funny thing about me that everyone should know, if I have been there before, I will never be lost but if it is a new place or I have to read a map, I will get lost. And this time was no exception. Cam and I had never been to the Palace or to the museum on foot before so naturally with no map we went the wrong way. It was alright though, we had a nice talk and got exercise and found this cool sculpture made out of umbrellas.
Now I know where to go if I loose my umbrella in a rainstorm. When we finally got our bearings, Cam was nice enough to be my personal photographer for a moment to capture me in this essence of London scene
I know I already posted a picture of this same spot but this one has a blue sky and me in it! So at least the sky is improved :] 
This picture of Trafalger Square has also been posted before but when the sky is sunny everything looks better!We did eventually get to the museum and then decided to take the tube home (the walk over took over 2 and a half hours) so as not to be late to dinner.
I love this picture! Since the tube is such a large part of my experience here I have been wanting to get a picture of it, but who would want to see a picture of a fast moving piece of metal? A typical American tourist living in London (me) finds the highlight of the tube the messages that come over the intercom reminding you to 'Mind The Gap' between the train and the platform and to stay behind the yellow line for our safety. So here is me, not really doing either :] LOVE:
Wednesday March 3rd-I'm sure from reading about my adventures here in London, you have come to the conclusion that I am a little girl at heart. I love and can relate anything and everything to a Disney movie, I enjoy dressing up, and I want to be a Princess when I grow up. Well, on Wednesday March 3rd (the Lost adventure was on Tuesday the 2nd of March) I sort of got my chance to do what I love, go to a castle and be a Princess!
While I couldn't actually go inside the Princess Tower (it was only for girls under the age of 8... LAME) I did do other Princess-y things! On second thought, the rest of the things I did here at Warwick Castle are not even lady-like let alone Princess-y! But they were a blast to do! :] 
At Warwick Castle, it was a different experience than all the other castles that we have gone to, it was extremely tourist oriented. Almost to the point of annoyance. One of the tourist attractions was a walk through of the living quarters of the castle that had life like wax figurines to make the castle feel more like it did in the days of its glory. This failed. The wax figures did not make it feel homely as intended but like a horror house. This person I am attacking was a wax figure that scared me and I am getting my revenge. Serves him right. 
As punishment for beating up a scary wax figure, I was put into the witch's cauldron... would have been a good place for Prince Charming to rescue me but it was OK, I rescued myself. 
Sarah and I decided to storm the Guy's Tower. It was fun and was going well until he forgot to watch her head on the low door frames. (I know how she feels, at Big Pit in Wales, I hit my head so many times) But storming the guy tower gave us the best view of the grounds of Warwick castle. 
Can you believe it? I went falconing! It was with an owl name Louis but still, I fed a bird of prey a dead chick out of my hand and held him and threw him in the air to see him soar into the heavens to land gracefully on a tree. It was so much fun! Here is me with the head bird man, David and the rest of the girls who flew Louis. Well, four of these girls didn't get to fly Louis but most did! 
He was very nice (and the first chance us girls got to flirt with a man since we've been here. Don't worry I didn't flirt. Not because I was keeping the rules here, but because there were to many girls crowding him I didn't get the chance! Hehe and he was short anyways. He must have been loving it though!) 
Sarah and I were later thrown into the stalks for conquering the Guy's Tower but o well, it was worth it :] I still loved this part of the touristy castle experience, just like everything else (except the scary wax people) LEAR:
Still Wednesday March 3rd- This Wednesday was our longest day trip of the whole program. Waking up at 5:45 in order to get ready and eat breakfast and be on the coach by 6:30am and did not get back to the Centre until nearly 1:30 in the morning and then having to wake up to go to classes the next day at 8:30! We were all so pooped! But it was worth it :] After Warwick Castle, we all hoped back on the coach and headed toward Stratford-upon-Avon. I went to Shakespeare's house!! :]! This was definitely a highlight of my trip.
This is me on the way to Anne Hathaway's cottage, where she and William Shakespeare would have courted. This is not the actress who is in the 'Princess Diaries' but Shakespeare's wife. I must say though, the actress is very clever using this as her stage name. 
This is her family's cottage. Cute isn't it?
Up next was the place where the Bard was born! It was so much fun to see this place because unlike the Hathaway House that had been remodeled, the birthplace is almost as it had been way back then. Inside, we were treated by a small performance of a scene from 'Much Ado About Nothing' which was amazing. 
Here I am in front of the great Bard's own family home! It was cute and quaint and lovely :] Made the whole no sleeping thing worth while. 
This is the house where Shakespeare retied to, it is only a few blocks away from his family's estate. Very nice large house. You can tell he was a very wealthy man. 
This is Shakespeare's tomb. I mourned a little here before I moved on with the group. He was such an influential man. Some was political, his dramas emphasize parts of society and political things he wants a say in or change but also thing of how many other people get their inspiration from him? With out him we wouldn't have many of the entertainments that we have today. Thank you Shakespeare. [
This has nothing to do with Shakespeare's writings but something he had a hand at influencing. This Pub is the Pub that Elizabeth Bennett stays at with her aunt and uncle on their way to Pemberly in Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' Just an interesting tid-bit] The perfect way to end a Shakespeare filled day is to see one of his productions and that is just what we did. We saw the Royal Shakespeare Company perform "King Lear." This is not my favourite play by the Bard, and actually it ranks pretty low on my scale, but this production may have been the best show I have ever seen in my life out of any other show. It was breath taking. Even thought I was deathly tired, I could hardly take my eyes away from the actors. It was absolutely incredible. If I missed being on the stage before, I am practically dying without the stage now. I was so blown away by the skill of these actors that I want to perfect my own acting skills. Even if I were to become half as good as them, i would be satisfied. I did not sneak a picture of the play but here are the techies setting up for the second half. Go techies! (I even miss being a techie...)
This is all the updating I have time for right now, but it was enough for me to go back and reminisce upon, hope you enjoyed it. Have a great day! :]
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