a Wonderful Welsh Week

This week has been a crazy week. To start it off on Monday after class we made a trip to the Imperial War Museum. I sort of rushed through the holocaust exhibit because it makes me a little sick to see the images of the atrocities. I did learn a lot and it makes me grateful for the freedoms that I take for granted in my life. Then on Monday night we took advantage of the fact that the theatre on Bayswater, right outside of Notting Hill Gate, has half off student prices on Monday nights. We went and saw Valentine's Day and I decided that it might have been one I could have red boxed. Oh well. The theatre is cool though, it's the exact one you see in the movie Notting Hill with Hugh Grant.

I got this photo to show how much fun my dad would have had in this Museum. Some day we'll come back together.

Tuesday was a long class day (actually they all are). But I have been highly determined to get out and drink in London as C.J. says. So Mary and I endured through the rain to Somerset House. The art there is wonderful (Degas, Michelangelo's sketches, Monet, Pisarro, Manet, etc.) but it's a small collection. Also It was Fashion Week in London and they had parts of the galleries shut off to the public. I thought about trying to get online and get tickets to fashion week like Ana and her friends did last year but they were sold out for the days we weren't in Wales and who am I kidding, I am one of the least fashion oriented people here! We did catch a glimpse of the craziness when we walked by though. That night a few of us went to Phantom of the Opera. The tickets were rather expensive but I thought that I should see it now since I get a student discount and I am only in London once...well it was good but I am not sure it was worth the money. I love the music, but the plot is a little strange. I think I might just spend my money on one more show and call it good. I have seen a lot so far: Wicked, Oliver, Hairspray, Phantom, and Twelfth Night.

The Somerset House stairs and the Somerset house being taken over during fashion week

Phantom!

Wednesday we tried to go get tickets to see Kiera Knightley's play The Misanthrope that is here in London. When we ruched to the box office the lady informed us that they were "pretty much sold out." uh pretty much? what about the ones that aren't pretty much sold out? After a little probing which she thought was rather rude of us she said she would sell us the tickets that were standing tickets at the bery top of the theatre (no way am I standing for two hours just to see Kiera Knightley when I can watch her from the comfort of my couch on a screen and actually see her facial expressions). So we abandoned that idea and drowned our sorrows in french pastries. After some serious homework that day, they whole group went to a production of Twelfth Night. It was pretty amazing. Shakespeare is pretty long and with the language he uses it is hard to maintain your interest for nearly three hours, but I loved this show! The acting was wonderful and it definitely helped that I have been studying Shakespeare and had to do a project on Twelfth Night this semester. I really, really enjoyed this play. I'm pretty excited because next week in Stratford we get to see King Lear.

So this is where the week gets crazy. After a late night at the theatre on Wednesday we all had to get up at 5 am the next day to depart on the coach for our trip to Wales. It was a funny morning seeing everyone so tired as we walked down Palace Court to get on the coach. Luckily I snatched the back seat for CJ, Laura and I so that we could have a little leg room. But alas, there was a huge draft through the emergency exit door at the back and it was freezing cold the whole way there. My purple puffy coat, however heinous it may look in all my photos, and however much I might hate that I wore it every day when I look back on these photos, I will never regret that it kept me warm throughout this study abroad.


So our first stop in Wales was Tintern Abbey. Wordsworth wrote a famous poem here and we were given the assignment to write our own after taking ten minutes alone to contemplate and write down our feelings. I am pretty crappy at writing poetry so I hope mine works out okay. I kept getting distracted from writing down my thoughts because it was just so pretty I couldn't keep from looking around this old dilapidated Abbey. It was one of the monasteries that was dissolved when Henry VIII was in power and it is just gorgeous to see these ruins surrounded by such green. It's weird because it is cold here but every-time I go outside it feels like Spring because the birds chirp and the plants are green, green, green. I love it.

Tintern Abbey.

Gotta have the classic jumping picture at Tintern Abbey

So after another long couple of hours on the coach we arrived at the Big Pit Coal Mine in Wales. This was a functioning coal mine up until the 80s and now it is just open for tours. It was cool to get to go underground and learn a little about the coal mining that they would do but honestly the coolest part was conversing with our tour guide. He had worked in coal mine since he was 15 and even now he still spends tons of time down there. His Welsh accent was almost too thick to understand him but he was such a sweet man and I felt like I got a better taste of what life is like for someone who works in the mines. It made me think a lot about my ancestors who worked in mines and just how depressing that must have been to be in a dark and cramped space day after day.

Here we are getting ready to go down into the Big Pit Coal Mine

Just preparing for some minin'

After the coal mines we went to the Museum of Welsh life. It was cool because it was this out door museum kind of like thsi is the place state park in the sense that they had re-created the history of Welsh life on farms, etc. We saw some wildlife (Jake tried to pet some bulls without getting butted), we tried some Welsh fudge, we walked around and saw beautiful gardens, and toured a Welsh manor house. It sort of felt like a fairy land being so green and seeing re-production huts. As a kid I would have been in love with this place, my imagination would have been running wild. I can't get over how green and beautiful Wales is. I love just looking out the window from the coach. It's probably one of my favorite things about our weekly trips because I see so much gorgeous scenery. I was loving Wales more than most I have seen though! It's wonderful.

The Garden's at the manor house of the Museum of Welsh Life

Laura and Cj think it is funny to poke and tickle me so I have to hold their hands and keep them in line.

Here I am, so happy to be in Wales!

After that we drove to Cardiff to stay the night in a hotel. After checking in, Jake, Christina, Laura and I walked into town. It was basically a lot of shopping and office buildings. There wasn't a whole lot there and much to the chagrin of Jake, we settled to eat at McDonalds because it was cheaper. We then went in to Top Shop for a while and made our way back home. This is where I had a sort of epiphany. I am really grateful for the people on this program and especially the boys here. We got totally lost and Jake calmly got us back to the hotel without any problems (besides having to walk on this little pedestrians walkway over a freeway and cut down a wooded hill, but that part was a fun adventure). Without him we would have been in big trouble because it was night time, and none of us could remember what the name of our hotel was and no one seemed to really be concerned but me. I'm sure I was overreacting but then I remembered the point Laura had made that we are really lucky to have Jake around because he is a worthy priesthood holder. It really hit me how important that is and how fortunate we are to have that to call upon if we need it. So needless to say we got back to the hotel safely and we had a fun night out in Cardiff. Another reason we love Jake: he takes the majority of our photos. Thanks Jake.

The next day we got up, ate a pretty darn good breakfast at our hotel, and embarked towards Caerphilly Castle. It's this old Welsh castle that never got attacked because the fortifications and the architecture were so secure that people didn't dare mess with it. Once it was hit by a cannon but never was the castle completely seized. It was also a completely empty castle so it was very pretty and picturesque but after a while seeing old abandoned stone buildings like Abbeys and Castles gets a little tiring. As we were exploring through the castle we kept coming into empty rooms and after a while Karli goes, "well you've seen one and you've seen 'em all." She was right. It was still one of the prettiest places though.

The views here should speak for themselves. No need for individual captions.

In front of Caerphilly Castle.

After Caerphilly Castle we took the coach to Oxfordshire and entered back into England. Here we picked up Peter Fag, our tour guide for the rest of the day. We then drove around and saw all the church history places we could. He was really knowledgeable about Wilford Woodruff and the early missionaries in Britain. Our first stop with him was to the Benbow Farm, also called Hill Farm. John and Jane Benbow lived here and were converted by Elder Woodruff. In their pond many people were baptized and about a month after converting they sold the entire farm and paid for themselves and 40 others to immigrate with the saints to America. They have a pretty amazing story. Jane Benbow helped pay to print the first editions of the Book of Mormon and the hymn book in Great Britain. Just hearing Peter talk about these saints, the faith they had to pick up and leave, and how firm they were in their faith made me so grateful for them. I thought a lot about my own ancestors and how they were involved in these conversions and benefitted from the American missionaries coming to England and spreading the gospel.

After the Benbow farm we went to a local baptist church where thy would have come for church services. One of my favorite stories is about the head minister here. He heard of Wilford Woodruff baptizing all these people in his parish and he was so upset he sent two authorities up to arrest him. The authorities arrived in the middle of Brother Woodruff's service so he kindly asked them to sit down and they could talk to him after. So they did and by the end of the service they offered themselves up for baptism. The Head minister was so angry at this he sent some higher up local clerks to arrest him again but they too were so moved by the spirit that they were baptized. Needless to say the minister of this parish stopped sending people up to contend with the Mormon missionaries.

The Benbow Farm.

In front of the pond @ Hill Farm where many baptism of British converts took place.

After the church we went to the Hereford Beacon. It is this huge hill that looks out over this huge countryside. This place is significant in church history because it's where Woodruff would come and contemplate and think. He also brought Willard Richards and Brigham Young up to here to meet and discuss the future of the church and the immigration of Saints from England. Wilford Woodruff wrote extensive journals and he talks about his spiritual experience of seeing a thunderstorm roll in over the large valley and he was moved by the power of God and his greatness. I wish that I effectively communicate how moving and spiritual it was so sit up there with Peter reading to us from his journals and realize the hardships and problems he faced while here, at the same time worrying about the church and the Saints in America, and still missing his family. Their faith was just so strong.

This is only a little taste of how magnificent it was on top of the beacon.

Contrary to what this photo may tell you I hiked about 99 percent of the way up the hill. Since I am used to NO exercise at all Jake offered me a piggy back. I felt guilty about three steps into it so pretty much it went on long enough for a photo.

After that we made our last stop of the very long day at Gadford Elm Chapel. It is this little chapel that was a baptist chapel but when Wilford converted the entire congregation they handed over the license and the rights of the church to the Mormons and it became a chapel from there on out. Here is where Wilford gave one of his farewell speeches before returning to the States. Peter read from Elder Woodruff's journal about all the worries and concerns of the church and how hard it was to leave and I was really overcome with the Spirit. I am just so lucky. I have so much in my life, I never have to worry about leaving my family and everything I own behind so that I can reach Zion. It was really beautiful feeling sitting in that little chapel and realizing the sacrifices that were made. I looked out the window and the landscape reminded me a lot of Spring City, the sun was setting, it was green and here I was in this little stone building where the work of God had rolled forth. It was a wonderful experience. We sang The Spirit of God as a group before we left and there were a lot of wet eyes in our group. It was a beautiful ending to a long day. I hope that I don't forget the things I felt there, someday I hope to go back there again.

Gadford Elm Chapel. We sat down here as a group for awhile listening to Peter. It was a really cool experience.

Outside the little chapel. They have one missionary couple here but since the chapel is so off the beaten track they also leave a questionnaire sheet on the window with Mormon questions. If you can answer them all correctly it will allow you entrance into the chapel when the missionaries aren't there.

The view from the Gadford Elm Chapel. It was really beautiful, I miss it already.

After a long bus ride home and a stop at a rather undelightful rest stop for dinner we finally arrived back in London. I was super moody and tired of being cooped up but after g-chatting Ana and exchanging photos with Laura and Cj I was a little happier before I went to bed.

Today I woke up, got some breakfast on Bayswater with Lou, Sarah and Reesa, then worked on this HUMONGOUS blog post, and then went with CJ and Laura to a local Baptist church to do a write up and then... we hit up Portabello Road. I could spend thousands of pounds here. The antiques are all pretty cool and I bought a few antique charms and CJ, Laura and I all split the 100 best club hits album pack for tonight's dance party (which we planned as soon as we bought the cds). So after a few write ups and some dinner we'll dance the night away.

Hope all is well back in the States. I miss home, I miss you all but I know that I have to love every minute of my time here in London. Ana sent me a card and package for Valentines day and she gave me some very wise advice. She said "You can lose all the weight you've gained, you can earn back all the money you've spent but you can't ever recreate your experience, so live it up."