Road Tripin'

I love England!!!!! Seiroulsy it is the most beautiful place I have ever been.  This week we want on this big roadtrip all across Northern England into York and the Lake District.  The hills were so beautiful.  It is better then what you see in the movies because the green is sooo green.  It is almost neon, I have never seen that color in the states.  There are sheep and cattle everywhere and these walls called dry stone walls that make the hills look like pieces of a puzzle. The walls are all made by staking flat rocks right on top of each other without any mortar.  When I wasn't car sick or sleeping I was in complete and utter bliss just sitting on the coach listening to my Pride and Prejudice soundtrack looking out the window.  The whole trip was a blast.   We did so much I am going to divide it up into days...

Day 1

We drove a couple hours and stopped at the Bronte Parsonage where the Bronte Sisters lived and wrote their novels. Then we drove a littel farther and went into York to see the York Minster.  It is this beautiful cathedral that we went on a tour through and then climbed to the top of the tower that had this stunning view.  We got to our first hostel and there was this big TV room so we all just congregated and watched a movie and put dreadlocks into one of the girls hair... too funny.

My roommates in the first hostel...

York Minster...

Day 2

This was my favorite day since I have been here if not my favorite day of my whole life... ok that is an exageration, but it was really fabulous.  We went to this place called Fountains Abbey. It is this old rune of an Abbey.  It is set down in this little valley with all of this foliage and and a little creek running the length of the valley and ended in these beautiful water gardens.  We were there for a couple hours just talking picture and walking around.  It sounds boring but it was so unbelievably beautiful that I could of stayed all day. After fountains abbey we headed over to Lake Windermere, checked into our hostel and then had the rest of the day to explore. We stayed up on this hill and the lake was beautiful and we had the most amazing view of it from our bedroom window.

The View...

Fountains Abbey...

Day 3

We got up ate the same breakfast we had every morning (a full english breakfast of eggs, sausage, hasbrowns, cooked tomatoes, bacon, toast, and some black pudding something).  First off we headed to William Wordsworth home where he wrote all of his poems.  He was so inspired by the beauty of the land and you can really feel it in his poems.  We took a little scenic drive around some more of the lakes and then we kind of split up. I went with a group of girls and took a ferry across the lake to go to Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Cottage where she wrote all of her Peter Rabbit tales. We checked into our other hostel and it was right on the water and we had some fun hanging out in the town and sketching the sailboats sitting in the lake.

Day 4 

This was another great day.  We went to Preston and went on a guided tour of all of the church sites.  We saw the platform in the middle of the square where the first missionaries in England preached from and again years later where President Hinkley taught from. We saw where the first baptism were and the palaces where these early missionaries lived.  We started heading towards Liverpool and stopped in two more little towns significant to the church and at the Preston Temple in Chorley.  Then we headed on to Liverpool and checked into our hostel.  

The temple...

The Docks...
The Beatles Museum...

Day 5

We got up and headed straight over to  Albert Dock which is where all of the early saints left to head to Utah.  It was a really tender experience. We sang a verse of "Come, Come Ye Saints" and these tears just welled up in my eyes thinking about the sacrifices they went through so that I could be where I am. After that we went to the Beatles museum, to pay our respects since they did start in Loverpool. And then we headed on our way back to London.  We stopped one last time at this manor house called Chatsworth. It is the current home if the Duke and Dutchess of York but it is also in the movie Pride and Prejudice as Mr. Darcey's home (Pemberly).  It was beautiful. 

Mr. Darcy from the Movie...

Chatsworth...

It was good to get back home.  It is funny being away for so long becasue now this really does feel like my home away from home. Sunday was good too.  There was only in my class so I we just went outside and I talked to him about the articles of faith. Now i'm just sitting in class writing this blog. Good times here in England! 

Tower of London and Shakespeare

Well yesterday was such a great day!  We woke up pretty early and headed to the tower of London as a whole group.  We got out tickets and headed inside and went straight to the crown jewels.  It was incredible. Probably one of my favorite things that I have done since we have been here.  I saw the biggest diamond in the world, the First Star of Africa! It was 503.2 carrots and on the royal scepter. There we a couple crowns including the Royal Crown and the crown used at the coronations. After the crown jewels we headed to do a tour with one of the Yeoman Warders. He told us about the history of the tower and about some of the people that used to live there.  He was a retired military man and was very funny, both qualifications to become a warder.  We wandered around the tower a little bit and saw where Anne Boleyne was beheaded and saw the torture chamber.  We also saw this very interesting exhibit on King Henry the VIII armor.  We headed a home a couple hours later and got ready to go to see Shakespeare’s Alls Well that Ends Well at the national theater.  It was quite interesting but I really enjoyed it.  Alot of the humor and details of the story were kind of over my head but I got the main gist of plot and I liked it!  It is basically about this girl who falls in love with this boy and through some ties with the king they are married.  The boy wants nothing to do with her and leaves to go into the army in Italy and gives his new bride some impossible demands which she has to get. It was quite funny and complicated plot.  I felt like there was an underlying theme with the costumes and some nuances that I was missing but it was still entertaining.  It was a great finish to a great day.  

A Yeoman Warder...

The Tower of London...
The National Theater...
The Play...

Southall!!!

hat a great day! I feel like in my life I haven’t had the opportunity to really immerse myself in other cultures. Of course there is the occasional vacation outside of the country but I don’t really think that counts.  Today we had the chance to go to Southall. This basically the area of London where all of the Indians live.  When we first arrived we got off of the train and walked to a Sikh Temple called the Gurdwara.  Dave Shuler gave us a short little run down of what the Sikh religion was and I found it fascinating.  He said that the Sikh have spiritual leaders that they call Gurus. There are no Gurus left today so they live their lives by following there book of scripture and following the 5 Ks, I will describe these later.  When we first walked in the temple we had to take out shoes off and cover our hair with our scarves.  We then proceed up the stairs into this big room where the book was sitting.  We walked up this big isle and to show respect you bow to the ground and touch your forehead to the book. We just walked up and touched the floor and then went to sit on the left side of the room with all the other ladies.  To show respect to the book you aren’t supposed to turn your back to it or point your feet to it. We had to sit cross legged on the  floor and walk sort of diagonally, it was a little tricky.  We took time to just meditate and all of these questions just started coming into my head.  It was a amazing the things you wonder about when you take time to just sit and think.  I wanted to know what the lady on the loud speaker was saying, and why there was a man fanning the book with a big white fan. I had my questions answered later that day in a little question and answer session we had in the library.  When we left the big room there was little lady sitting on the floor who handed us a lump of this warm gooey stuff which was made out of butter, flour, and sugar which was just a thank you for coming to worship.  Then we headed to the kitchen to try some indian food. The food is free and is always there for anyone that wishes to come and eat.  During the question and Answer session we were able to talk to a real practicing Sikh.  He said he had become active about 13 years ago. He told us about the religion but he said they don’t really call it a religion they call it a way of life.  There philosophy is that they don’t need to convert people to their religion because there goal is to just praise God and encourage others to praise God the best they can. He also described the 5 K’s. The turban- worn at all times to show respect to god, the comb- symbol of cleanliness comb it twice a day, Hair- never cutting tit because it is something God gave them, the knife- worn at all times to show they are willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of mankind, and the bangles- to remind them to do the work of god.  I thought it was amazing how many similarities there were between out religion and theirs when the cultural differences are so big.  We both pay tithing, we both take or shoes off in our temples to show respect, we both focus on a personal conversion to God, both acknowledge the power of mothers and their part in teaching and nurturing children, and many other things. He also told us that they don’t keep copies of the scripture in their house unless they chose to follow a strict set of rules, that is why they are encourage to go the temple twice a day.

After that we were able to go and sit in 2 more muslim temples. They were much different.  They worship many Gods and they are represented by these big ornate dolls set up all along their temples. They were all about the sparkle and the lights.  It almost felt like we were in Disneyland and not a real place of worship.  I was kind of bummed that we didn’t get to talk with anyone because I had a lot of questions about this religion as well.  After those temples we had a couple hours of free time to just explore the town.  We bought bangles and got henna.  It was fun to see these people just out and about their daily routine. We ended our excursion at this Pakistani Restaurant for dinner.  It was really great.  It was my first time having indian food and I really enjoyed trying everything.  It was a great finish to a great day.

The Gudwara...

The sweet dough...
The free food...
The statues in the muslim temple...

W

Pictures of Dover and Canterbury

The inside of Canterbury...

The outside of Canterbury...
The Elephant, Eagle, and Donkey in the cloisters...
The white cliffs of Dover...
View from the top of Dover Castle, if you look closely you can see the border of France in the distance...

Dover and Canterbury

Wednesday was a first day trip.  We got on the bus and headed to Dover first.  We drove to along the white  cliffs and ended up on the top of this precipice and there was the Dover Castle.  We just walked around and took a bunch of pictures. We walked all the way to the tippy top of the castle and we could see France across the channel. Then we stopped at the beach just to do some gazing:)  They don’t have sand here just a bunch of rocks which I kind of like because then you don’t get sandy. Then we headed to Canterbury to pay our respects to St. Thomas Becket. These are some of some of my thoughts from my learning Journal...

Canterbury was one of my favorite cathedrals that I have seen in Europe.  Not only was it historically significant and interesting to look at, but I thought it was beautiful.  The style was not far from the regular church but it just seemed bigger. The ceilings were a little taller, the nave a little longer, it was just magnificent.  It was thrilling to see the actual change in architecture over the history of the church.  There were literally this round renaissance arches halfway cut off by a pillar from a pointed gothic arch.  Down in the crypt was also a great example of the early styles with the low ceilings and fat arches while just meters above was a perfect example of the the openness and color of the gothic style.  I loved the room in the crypt with the paintings on the walls.  Our tour guide said that several years ago there was just a wall where the entrance was and when they knocked down the wall they found the paintings.  These were the type of paintings that would have adorned the walls of the whole church back in St. Thomas’s time.  It was a little sad for me to see the damage the Puritans did when they came into the church. They cut off the heads and hands of any of the statues that they could reach and smashed in all the stain glass.  I can’t even imagine the history and art that would have been lost.

I feel a little bit of a stronger connection with the church because it has a little big of America in it.  Our tour guide showed us in the courtyard in the cloisters where there was an elephant, a donkey, and an eagle carved into the stone.  She said this was thank you to the  Americans because in WWII their library was bombed out and America was the one who sent money to help rebuild and re collect things.  I also loved the stian glass in the chapel where St. Thomas was killed.  It was a fairly recent depiction of the current queen at her Coronation as well as a picture of her family.  I was just thinking that it is so neat that we are contributing to history. For us right now it seems as though things like stain glass in cathedrals is only in history but in a couple hundred years, we will be the history

P.S. And just to clarify I picked the umbrellas because it is always kind of cloudy and rainy here:)

Welcome to my blog!

For my Humanities class I have to keep a blog of my academic adventures here so I might post some pictures of art and some of the papers I write!  That afternoon we had an assignment to go to the British Museum and the National Gallery.  It was so unbelievable. There were just tons of people everywhere. Shoppers, and tourists, and naked protestors, and street performers.  At the British Museum we were assigned to go to the Anglo-Saxon section of the museum and we got to see the Rosetta stone! For me this was a major milestone in my life. When I was younger I was obsessed with Egypt and if you know anything about Egypt you know about the Rosetta Stone… so if you if you don’t know anything about Egypt, the Rosetta stone is literally this big stone they found that has the same thing written 3 times in a row in 3 languages. On of them was hieroglyphics, hence they had a way to translate all the egyptian writings.  We also wen to the National Gallery and I saw some Van Gogh, Da Vinci, and Monet. It was so beautiful! 

So hear is my academic thoughts on some of the paintings I saw...

At a first glance it appears the subjects of these two paintings could not be more opposite; one is vain and one is divine.  The first painting being one of Albrecht Durer’s self portraits from 1500.   Durer painted just himself.  He is pictured wearing a fine robe and his cascading over his shoulders. The second being The Virgin and Child With Four Angels by one of Duccio’s followers painted about 1315. The differences in subject are very apparent, one is a self portrait and the other is a religious depiction. Durer seems as if he is trying to glorify himself while The Virgin and Child Is glorifying God.  Despite the stark differences Durer may not have been as vain as his picture may lead on. The way he paints himself suggests that he is painting the God or Jesus Christ.  He has the same frontal sitting position and the same flowing hair.  In reality both of these paintings are dealing with the divine. 

Both of these paintings are aesthetically pleasing for different reasons.  The Durer is full of neutral browns and tans with the occasional white accent which is pleasant to look at. The Virgin and Child, on the other hand, is full of characters and vibrant colors which is very interesting to look at.  Durer in the painting stands out because he is the lightest figure in the painting against a dark background while mary and the baby stand out because they are the darkest figures set against the red cloth held by two of the angels. This technique could also be referred to as framing.  One of the ways a painter draws one into the painting is by using sight lines. The most important part of the Durer painting is his face. His fingers pointing followed by the collar of his coat opening up to his face naturally brings the eye up to his face.  In The Virgin and Child painting all the angels as well as the virgin Mary are looking too the baby Jesus also bringing the observers eye to rest on the infant. One of the things Durer projects better then the Duccio follower is perspective which also is influenced by the time period of the paintings.  The self portrait seems perfectly natural while the Virgin and Child seems out out of proportion.