Pinky Out Ladies

We went to high tea at Kensington Palace today. It was so much fun! I felt so classy and lady-like. It was absolute bliss and I LOVED it! Every little detail was so cute! 

Pinky out of course! 

In the gardens right outside of the Orangry, where we had high tea. 

I kind of have an obsession with china and teapots. I love them and I love the designs on them and everything! I wish fancy teapots weren't so expensive so then I could collect them! 

Good Ol' Scotland and Northern England

Edinburgh Scotland and Northern England are gorgeous! 

 

Taking a stroll through Scotland

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

Tea Time! :) Gluten free of course! 

The hostel we stayed at it Haworth, or in other words, the Haunted Mansion!

Hadrian's Wall 

My Safe Haven

Riding in the coach down the twisting roads. Green trees surrounding the windy cobblestone streets. There is a lake of glass out the window that is so perfectly still you can see the reflection of the colorful hills and trees in the water as we drive by. There are green rolling hills to the other side of the coach with mama sheep and their babies roaming around. The sky is blue with mysterious wispy clouds that almost seemed like a light dewy mist. All I keep asking myself is, "am I in a Nicholas sparks novel right now?" I have been to many beautiful places in this world but I think today has been one of my favorites! We are in Ambleside today. First thing when we got here we ate dinner at this cute little cottage teahouse. Just the drive up the hill to dinner was incredible. The dinner place had a whole gluten free British meal with gluten free chocolate cake to finish it off. It was yummy! After dinner we toured the cottage where William Wordsworth lived. He is a famous poet and we have been studying some of his works in my class this semester.

I wandered lonely as a cloud


That floats on high o'er vales and hills,


When all at once I saw a crowd,


A host, of golden daffodils;


Beside the lake, beneath the trees,


Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.



Continuous as the stars that shine


And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line


Along the margin of a bay:


Ten thousand saw I at a glance,


Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.



The waves beside them danced; but they


Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:


A poet could not but be gay,


In such a jocund company:

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought


What wealth the show to me had brought:



For oft, when on my couch I lie


In vacant or in pensive mood,


They flash upon that inward eye


Which is the bliss of solitude;


And then my heart with pleasure fills,


And dances with the daffodils.

We read this cute daffodil poem in the Wordsworth garden overlooking the beautiful countryside and lake. It felt like a dream and I loved every minute if it. After the tour we headed back down the hill to the hostel. We are staying at the cutest little lakeside hostel and I do not even know how we got so lucky! This place is an absolute dream to me. There are sailboats docked next to these cute little wooden docks and there are seaside little cottage houses and restaurants. There are so many gluten free options that it is overwhelming! The weather is a perfect temperature to wear a light sweater. I just wanted to sit on the dock and look out over the water and watch the sun set. It stays light for a long time here. It didn't fully get dark until about 10:30. That meant that the sunset lasted for a long time. I loved how long it dragged on and how many colors the sky turned. It was beautiful. I kept looking around for my Josh Duhmal to come around the corner and whisk me off my feet like in the movie Safe Haven. This would be the cutest place ever to fall in love.

 Isn't this the most gorgeous thing you have ever seen? I love this place!

So much fun to be surrounded by such good friends! 

This is a beautiful hike we took that overlooks the town

I am in love with Ambleside

Persuasion

Throughout this semester we have been studying the novel by Jane Austin titled Persuasion. I have really enjoyed learning about lots of the underlying meanings behind this novel. There are so many deep things to explore and discuss about this novel. We have gotten into big class discussions about women's rights and their role in society. We have talked about gender roles and how it is still a problem today. There has also been talk about marriage and, as a woman, when is it the right time to surrender and give up everything for a man? How much should a woman have to give up for a man? What is the perfect balance of surrendering and yet still having enough education and meaning behind yourself to be an equal partner in marriage and relationships? These questions obviously don't have any right or wrong answers. That is why the book is discussing these problems. That is another great thing about this book, all the questions it poses and all the answers are arbitrary. No one quite knows the perfect answer. It gets you thinking. 

The title itself is Persuasion. People are trying to persuade throughout the whole book. In the first few chapters of the book it discusses the different types of women by using Anne (the main character) and her sisters as examples. There is the type that gives up everything and gets married right away, the type that remains single because she is stubborn and wont give into societies role, then there is the type that is doing both, similar to Anne. Anne doesn’t quite know if she wants to surrender to what society if trying to make her become. What is the right thing for Anne to do anyway? Anne feels like there needs to be a balance. The role of gender is still a problem in society today and that is a reason why I think this novel is still so popular. People can relate to it. The book goes through Anne’s way of deciding what is best for her. The ultimate judgment of what is right to do is ambiguous. The book is titles persuasion because even though Anne is being pulled and persuaded by society and everyone else in this book, she still has to decide for herself what she wants to do and what she thinks is right.

This book can be applied to many aspects of life. There are always people around you and society norms that persuade you and form you into the person you are and will become. People need to remember that, even though persuasion can be good at times, there needs to be times where people decide for themselves. It is hard to step away from society and change. Sometimes it is engrained into people’s heads what is right or wrong, or that there even is a right or wrong in every situation. Sometimes there is a gray area in life and people need to explore and find their own gray area. It might end up being a mixture of someone else’s black, which turns out to be a different persons white. In the end the gray area you choose will become your own personal black and white. People need to learn to step back from the norms and the persuasion and choose for themselves what they think is right for them.

All of these questions and feelings have been really applicable to my life lately. That is why I am so grateful for the opportunity to be studying abroad in London. This can be a time for me, like Anne, to figure out what my black and white is. It is a time where I can step away from mostly everything and just think about what Sami wants to think about. I can make decisions for myself and I can finally figure out what I want to do in life. I think I am finally figuring out my balance of black and white and gray and everything in between. 

Because To Live, You Have To Love

"Because to live, you have to love."  

"Those who live in fear will die miserably in their grave. You can't live in fear of your own life."

These are some of my new favorite quotes from one of my new favorite musicals. ONCE! It was absolutely incredible! More about once to come, but first here is a little bit about the rest of my day!

 For a class assignment we went and visited a cemetery. It sounds like a weird assignment but it was actually quite enjoyable. The graves were all very ornate and rustic. It was fun, in an eerie sort of way, to walk through and look at all the random headstones. The picture below was probably taken in one of the least decorative part of the cemetery. I wish it showed more of the cool headstones. 



Next was shopping and Starbucks of course! Below I am with my new friends Jess and Madie. It was frappuccino happy hour so everything was half off! I love getting frappuccino's for only 1 pound! After Starbucks we hit up Primark. I was in love! Primark is a big department store that is here in London. It so super crowded and there is so much stuff it is almost overwhelming. Everything is so cheap but so cute! All the girls here have been there so many times and for some reason I just kept missing out. Now I know why they go there so much. It is the best store ever! I got some cute surprises for my sisters and I am excited to give them to them when they come over to visit me. 



After class, the cemetery, and shopping we decided to go to Once the musical. This is me all ready to go! Because everyone has to take a selfie every once in awhile… :)
 

We were all a little nervous to go to Once because we had heard such mixed reviews. Half of the girls that went absolutely loved it and it was their new favorite and the other half said it was the worst play they have ever been to. I decided that either way I still wanted to know what all they hype was about. Let me tell you, I am so glad I went! It is probably one of my new favorite plays too! I LOVED it!!!!! It is a little odd though. I think I loved it so much because I went into it knowing that it wasn't a typical "happily ever after" love story beforehand. I also went into it knowing a lot of people hated it so I didn't have super high hopes. I am not a super emotional person, or a very musical, broadway type of person either. But this play had me crying at the end and I had chills the whole time! The music was incredible and I have already downloaded it onto my computer and have been jamming all day. Falling Slowly is one of my new favorite songs. I highly recommend this musical!



David Hunter was actor that played the main guy in the show we went to. He was amazing and he had one of the best voices I have ever heard. I have looked everywhere for him singing the song Falling Slowly but I can't find it. Below is a link of him singing a different song but you can really tell how talented he is. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtudo63MYyg

Stonehenge, Bath, and Stourhead Farm

Stourhead Farm was the first stop on our tour. The gardens were gorgeous and it was so much fun walking around all the beautiful nature. We went there to get a glimpse into the times of Jane Ausen and what her life would be like. We were able to see what it would be like in the times of the Persuasion, which is the book we are reading for my British Literature class. Pride and Prejudice was also filmed here. It was fun getting a glimpse into the 18th century.

The next stop was Bath. We got to tour all the Roman Baths and then we had some free time to tour the city of Bath. It was lots of fun to see something that has been preserved for so long. The Baths held so much history. It is amazing that they have been able to preserve them. The town itself was also very surprising to me. I felt as if I was in Italy for a few hours. The city has a completely different feel then any of the other cities in England. I was glad I was able to spend a few hours there exploring. 

 Lastly we stopped at Stonehenge. It is so amazing to me. There are so many mysteries about this place and the unknown is what makes it so exciting. Ultimately you are able to make up your own story in your head about Stonehenge and why it was there. Supposedly Myth Busters did a show where they took cement stones that weighed about the same as these stones at Stonehenge. They used modern technology to try and replicate Stonehenge and they couldn't even do it! These stones are honestly so amazing! The more I learned about this place the more I am convinced that there used to be giants in this world and they were the ones who actually built Stonehenge. ;) Just kidding. But it is a good theory nonetheless!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. It captures just how much fun I am having exploring these sights with my new best friends! 

May 21st, 2014

Harry Potter, Harry Harry Potter

Harry Potter Studio Tour was very magical. The girls in my group were way hardcore fans and straight after class they ran to the Tube to make it there in time. I stuck with my friend, Ashley Livingston, because we were both in the same boat. We both have seen some of the Harry Potter movies but we haven’t read the books and we aren’t huge fans but we like it. After class we watched all the other girls stress and sprint to the Tube while we just chilled for a minute and got some lunch and then later we headed to the Tube. We stopped and got some gelato on the way, we also made lots of friends! Both of us are super chill and didn’t know exactly where we were going so we were just hoping that we wouldn’t get lost. We knew we would make it there eventually! We even stopped and got the typical London photo that I still needed to get. Picture with a red phone booth! 

 Next stop was the Tube. We made a friend on the Tube that helped us to find the right station to catch a train. Once we made it to the train station we made another friend who helped us find the right train. It was so funny, there were 2 trains going to the same place but one would take an hour and one would only take about 20 minutes. The train station worker told us to go to platform 8 to catch the right train that would only take us 20 minutes. We asked him if it was the one leaving now or the later one, he told us it was the later one that would leave in about 15 minutes. I guess we got confused because we assumed that another train was coming to the platform that would leave later, we didn’t think it was the train that was already at the platform! We were just sitting there on the side of the train when the train station worker comes running up to us. He rushes over to tell us to hurry and get on the train because it is about to leave. We almost missed our train just because we were sitting there! We are so silly. We finally got on the train and then took another shuttle to Harry Potter World. We pulled up and not going to lie, it was magical. I think the fact that so many people are so obsessed with this place just made it have a magical feeling. Everyone was there and united by the same purpose. It is amazing how a silly book can literally change the world. People live for this kind of stuff. I turned to Ashley and I said, “We have to read Harry Potter now.” She agreed and me made a pinky promise that we would both start the Harry Potter series when we got home this summer. We joked about how we are doing things so backwards. The movies and then the studio tour and then the books. I guess whatever works haha! We are going to have a sort of “Book Club” and check up on each other to make sure we are reading it. It must be good if people are this obsessed with it! I am excited to read it and immerse myself into a magical world of wizards and magic. Maybe it will help me to expound my imagination! While we were there we got some Butterbeer and took lots of cool pictures. There was so much to see and it is so awesome how much detail people put into the movies. I was so surprised about all of the props and sets that were so exquisitely done. Now for the funniest part of the whole day, we were so tired on the train that Ashley and I both fell asleep. There was this Indian guy across from us that didn’t speak any English. I randomly woke up really fast because my head was bobbing. When I jolted up the guy across was taking a picture of us!!!! He literally was probably thinking we were crazy for falling asleep on the train. I normally would not do that so that proves how tired I actually am. I am so busy all the time that I never even get to sleep. It is so worth it though!

May 20th, 2014