So, Thursday night I went to see Love's Labours Lost at Shakespears' the Globe with everybody in our program. It was fantastic! I really enjoyed the whole performance. I was really disappointed when it finished. I wanted to see it again....so I decided to go again! I went Friday at 14:00 to see it again. It was just as good the second time around.
But there was one hilarious incident in the second showing... At one point the actors are throwing bread around on stage and then they stand still and talk in small groups because they have heard sad news. Well, since it was during the day, some pigeons spied the bread and started landing on stage! At that point, the actors had completely lost our attention, so the girl who was in the middle of her monologue stopped and walked over to the pigeons and stomped to drive them away. They all flew away in a flurry and she returned to her spot and waited until we had finished laughing and then said, "As I was saying..." and continued with her monologue. It was fantastic. I really enjoyed that moment and admire her presence of mind.
Today Laura and I got up at 5:15 to go to the airport to meet her parents and Papa and Ann. Her parents got in about 5 minutes after we got to the international arrivals part of the terminal, at about 7:50 or so. Then they decided to wait with me for Papa and Ann to arrive, which was supposed to be a 8:00 originally. We decided to get some coffee and sit and talk while we waited for them because they had moved the flight up to 9:03. Well, we waited until about 10:00 and then talked to the people at information who told us to wait 20 more minutes... We waited until 10:30 when I decided to find the DELTA information desk and make sure Papa and Ann were actually on the plane that had landed at 9:01, allegedly. They told me that Papa and Ann had been rerouted and that they had just landed. Well, I went back and we waited until 11:30 or so when they finally appeared, without luggage... Their luggage has been lost. It is supposed to be delivered to their hotel tomorrow morning.
I had a lot of fun talking with Laura and her parents. They are such sweet people! They were so friendly and very talkative. :-) I really enjoyed talking with them.
Once I got Papa and Ann to their hotel, we decided it was time for lunch since it was about 1:30 and I hadn't eaten anything aside from a croissant and some tea on the train, the Gatwick Express at about 7:00 or so. We headed to the Thai restaurant that I went to on my first day here and we sat down and had a really nice lunch. While we sat there, some guy walked in, sat down for a minute and then walked out. We all wondered what he was doing... We found out when Ann went to get her wallet out to pay... He had lifted it from her purse that she had hung on the back of her chair. Papa was able to go get some money and pay for lunch. They went back to their hotel and I came back to the flat.
We met up again at 19:30 for dinner. Ann and Papa had wanted to get naps, but had to spend all that time contacting credit card companies and getting all that straightened out. We had a nice dinner at an Indian place. It was a nice little place and the food was good, if a little spicy for me.
Tomorrow they are going to church with me and then we are going to the British Museum. That should be fun!
Prayer Requests: That Ann having her wallet lifted doesn't make this a bad visit... :-( Also, that she is able to get all of that stuff straightened out. All three of us are pretty exhausted, so you could pray for a good sleep for all of us tonight. Thank you!!
Friday, October 5, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Class and the London Symphony Orchestra!
Tuesday I had class as usual: music class and science class. Yesterday I only had one class: Shakespeare. We did not have our World War II class because we were all going to hear the London Symphony Orchestra play!
We heard a violin concerto by Elgar and we heard Mozart's Requiem. The concerto was alright...the solo violinist got kind of squeaky at points, but overall it was pretty good. But I loved the Requiem! It was beautiful. The soloists were really good! The soprano was my favorite. The tenor was probably the worst...he was kind of reedy and didn't seem to know the music very well.
I just got back from a free concert at Bishopsgate where they have free lunchtime concerts. It was a violinist and pianist playing Bach's Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in D Minor, Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor Opus 30 No. 2, and Tchaikovsky's Waltz-Scherzo for Violin and Piano Opus 34. They were really good! Sometimes the violin was a little shrill, but overall they were great. Both the violinist and pianist are 21. I thought it was interesting that the pianist was born in Israel and had come to London in 2002. I thought they both did very well considering their age, but then I'm not an expert on how good people usually are at that age. :-)
Tonight we are going to see Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe which is right on the other side of the Thames from us. I've walked past the Globe a couple of times. We will be groundlings, so we will be right up near the stage and we will be standing the entire time... Thankfully it is not one of his longer plays. But I am excited to get to see a Shakespeare play in the Globe! :-)
Prayer Requests: I am still really tired. Andrew got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon and was able to go with us to hear the London Symphony Orchestra!
We heard a violin concerto by Elgar and we heard Mozart's Requiem. The concerto was alright...the solo violinist got kind of squeaky at points, but overall it was pretty good. But I loved the Requiem! It was beautiful. The soloists were really good! The soprano was my favorite. The tenor was probably the worst...he was kind of reedy and didn't seem to know the music very well.
I just got back from a free concert at Bishopsgate where they have free lunchtime concerts. It was a violinist and pianist playing Bach's Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in D Minor, Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor Opus 30 No. 2, and Tchaikovsky's Waltz-Scherzo for Violin and Piano Opus 34. They were really good! Sometimes the violin was a little shrill, but overall they were great. Both the violinist and pianist are 21. I thought it was interesting that the pianist was born in Israel and had come to London in 2002. I thought they both did very well considering their age, but then I'm not an expert on how good people usually are at that age. :-)
Tonight we are going to see Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe which is right on the other side of the Thames from us. I've walked past the Globe a couple of times. We will be groundlings, so we will be right up near the stage and we will be standing the entire time... Thankfully it is not one of his longer plays. But I am excited to get to see a Shakespeare play in the Globe! :-)
Prayer Requests: I am still really tired. Andrew got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon and was able to go with us to hear the London Symphony Orchestra!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Pictures from Canterbury
This is the Canterbury Cathedral, right inside the wall that surrounded it.
This is Laura, David, Heather, and Mary! You can see some of the fish and chips which were mostly consumed at that point. We ate that "junks" up fast! :-)
This is the 'Rose Compass' alter cloth. It was on the alter in front of the quire, where the choir sits.
This is the cloister at the Canterbury Cathedral. Cloisters always look like such quiet peaceful places to be. They are always very very green, too.
This is the oak ceiling in the Chapter Room. It is made of oaks that grow very very slowly, making them very hard hardwood. I think they were brought from Ireland.
This is part of the shrine to Thomas Becket. It was a rather scary looking shrine and I decided to play with my black and white setting on my camera... I think it makes it look even more dramatic. The two smaller swords with their shadows are supposed to represent the four knights that killed Becket and the large sword is supposed to make a cross with the thing that holds all three actual swords.
We saw this on a truck (delivering muffins, I assume) as we got out of the tube station back in London. "Hey, driver, give me all the muffins in your truck!!" :-)
Canterbury Tales
Yesterday we (Mary, Heather, Laura, David, and I) took the National Express bus to Canterbury. We left at about 9:30 and it took about 2 hours to get there.
When we got there it was rainy and pretty miserable. But we grabbed some brochures and things from the information center and decided to get some lunch as it was past 12 at that point. We had lunch at a little fish and chips place that seemed to be a local favourite. Next to where we had lunch was a exhibit for the Canterbury Tales. We looked at it and Laura, who had seen it before, told us it was odd and an a bit funny.
After lunch, we got tickets to get into the Cathedral and then decided that we wanted to have a guided tour. The next guided tour was at 2:30 so we bought our tickets for that and then left to go see more of the city. We wandered around a bit and talked about what we thought would be fun. The Canterbury Tales place kept coming up in conversation...
So we finally decided to go into the Canterbury Tales exhibit. It was hilarious! It was a series of rooms, in which was a different story, or tale. They all contained wax figures and it supposedly smelled the way that it would back then. It was a very musty, dank, and stifling smell. But it was a lot of fun. It did not have a lot of light, each room would light up a bit as we went in it. It was rather scary to see life-sized wax figures and hear voices in the low lighting...and when they shout behind you...that can be rather scary as well... But we had a lot of fun in it and talking about it afterwards. :-)
Then we went back for our tour of the Cathedral. It was a very interesting tour. Our tour guide talked a lot about all the archbishops of Canterbury who had been killed (totaling 5). He told us the story about Thomas Becket, one of the archbishops, who was killed in the Cathedral. It is a beautiful cathedral with lots of different styles of architecture and lots of different styles of stained glass all over the place.
Afterwards we all went to get coffee, tea, and hot chocolate at a cafe chain that is everywhere in England it seems, Cafe Nero. It was very good and our servers were nice and very generous. We sat around and talked and laughed and warmed up for a bit.
Then we wandered up and down the cobbled roads for a bit longer until 5:30ish when David, Laura, and I decided to go to Evensong at the Cathedral. It was beautiful! They had a good choir and I really enjoyed the service. It made the Cathedral a resting place for the soul. It was really refreshing.
Then we met back up with Mary and Heather and decided to get supper before heading back to the bus station. It took us waaaay too long to decide where to eat...everyone had to compare prices of the little pubs and cafes along the road... We finally decided on a nice little Italian restaurant next to a small river or stream that went under the road. The food was really good... Then we went to the bus station and headed back to London. It was a really fun day trip to take!
Prayer requests: Andrew is still in the hospital. They are planning to discharge him on Wednesday at some point. We are hoping that they won't have to push the date back any more. Papa and Ann are flying out to visit me this weekend so you can pray that they get here safely. Also, I've been pretty tired and a lot of the people in the program are getting sick... So you can pray for sleep and that the sickness won't spread. I think that's all for now. Thank you so much!!
When we got there it was rainy and pretty miserable. But we grabbed some brochures and things from the information center and decided to get some lunch as it was past 12 at that point. We had lunch at a little fish and chips place that seemed to be a local favourite. Next to where we had lunch was a exhibit for the Canterbury Tales. We looked at it and Laura, who had seen it before, told us it was odd and an a bit funny.
After lunch, we got tickets to get into the Cathedral and then decided that we wanted to have a guided tour. The next guided tour was at 2:30 so we bought our tickets for that and then left to go see more of the city. We wandered around a bit and talked about what we thought would be fun. The Canterbury Tales place kept coming up in conversation...
So we finally decided to go into the Canterbury Tales exhibit. It was hilarious! It was a series of rooms, in which was a different story, or tale. They all contained wax figures and it supposedly smelled the way that it would back then. It was a very musty, dank, and stifling smell. But it was a lot of fun. It did not have a lot of light, each room would light up a bit as we went in it. It was rather scary to see life-sized wax figures and hear voices in the low lighting...and when they shout behind you...that can be rather scary as well... But we had a lot of fun in it and talking about it afterwards. :-)
Then we went back for our tour of the Cathedral. It was a very interesting tour. Our tour guide talked a lot about all the archbishops of Canterbury who had been killed (totaling 5). He told us the story about Thomas Becket, one of the archbishops, who was killed in the Cathedral. It is a beautiful cathedral with lots of different styles of architecture and lots of different styles of stained glass all over the place.
Afterwards we all went to get coffee, tea, and hot chocolate at a cafe chain that is everywhere in England it seems, Cafe Nero. It was very good and our servers were nice and very generous. We sat around and talked and laughed and warmed up for a bit.
Then we wandered up and down the cobbled roads for a bit longer until 5:30ish when David, Laura, and I decided to go to Evensong at the Cathedral. It was beautiful! They had a good choir and I really enjoyed the service. It made the Cathedral a resting place for the soul. It was really refreshing.
Then we met back up with Mary and Heather and decided to get supper before heading back to the bus station. It took us waaaay too long to decide where to eat...everyone had to compare prices of the little pubs and cafes along the road... We finally decided on a nice little Italian restaurant next to a small river or stream that went under the road. The food was really good... Then we went to the bus station and headed back to London. It was a really fun day trip to take!
Prayer requests: Andrew is still in the hospital. They are planning to discharge him on Wednesday at some point. We are hoping that they won't have to push the date back any more. Papa and Ann are flying out to visit me this weekend so you can pray that they get here safely. Also, I've been pretty tired and a lot of the people in the program are getting sick... So you can pray for sleep and that the sickness won't spread. I think that's all for now. Thank you so much!!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Sorry....
I'm sorry I haven't written in so long! I don't really have an excuse aside from general laziness... Anyway, Thursday I didn't do too much. One of my friend's parents ordered a cake for the first day of school. But she didn't get around to picking it up and giving it out until Thursday. We had it at the Winston House before the Politics class. That night we (Heather and I) watched You've Got Mail. That was a lot of fun!
Friday I stayed at home while some friends (Laura, Mary, and Heather) went to Notting Hill and shopped some. I was waiting for some friends from camp but they found out too late that the tickets they needed would be waaaay too expensive. So, I decided to get some groceries that I needed and a blanket. I searched for so long to find a simple blanket...apparently they prefer duvets here... But I was finally successful in finding a nice fleece blanket that will (hopefully) match my stuff at home. I was pretty disappointed that my friends from camp couldln't come, but I guess that's how things go sometimes. That night we (Laura, Heather, Mary, Katherine, Katlin, and I) went to a free concert (music class requirement again) at the National Portrait Gallery. It was a good concert and it was in interesting venue to have it in.
On Saturday we (Laura, Heather, Mary, David and I) went to Hampstead Heath. It's a large heath right on the edge of London. We finally rode in a double-decker bus, since the line (the subway line, that is) that we would have taken was shut down for the morning. It was a lot of fun to ride in the top and look down on everything. On the north end of the heath there is a large house that is called the Kentwood House. It has a ton of paintings put there by someone who bought the house solely to display his collection of paintings and books, etc. It was very impressive and very quiet as those sorts of houses are apt to be. Sadly, I had the hiccups almost the entire time... And David continued to give me funny looks every time I hiccuped which made me laugh and then I would do a sort of laugh/hiccup/laugh... David also brought a friend (Shannon) with him who is also studying abroad in London. She was a lot of fun and very sweet. I think we'll be hanging out with her again. After Hampstead Heath we (David, Shannon, Heather, Laura, Patrick, Chris, Mary, and I) went to visit Andrew in the hospital. Andrew had a blister on his toe that popped and got infected. He had to be hospitalized because the infection got so bad. He is still in the hospital, hopefully for the last night. They are hoping to discharge him tomorrow at some point, tomorrow being Monday.
Today we (Laura and I) went to church at the Every Nations church with David again. It was good again and again we were invited to have lunch, but once again we had to decline. Laura was going to meet her aunt, who lives in London and David is sick and wasn't feeling up to it. After that I made a quick pasta dish for myself to use up the alfredo sauce (I made some from scratch yesterday!!) and then I proceeded to break my glasses while making another batch of congo bars. I also talked to my twin, which made me very happy! :-) It was so nice to talk to her again. I also got to talk to Mama (yay!!!) and get an update on a little of what's going on at home. We also got the glasses stuff worked out. Then I went to watch a movie with Dr. Oehler and his wife and Laura, Chris, David, Heather, and Mary. We watched The Wind That Shakes The Barley.... That was a horribly depressing and violent and gory movie... I would not, could not recommend it... Then, because it was so depressing, we (Laura, Mary, Heather, and I) watched Bridget Jones' Diary to end the day on a slightly happier note.
Tomorrow (again, Monday) we (Laura, Heather, Mary, David, and I) are going to go to Canterbury and explore it all day long. :-) That should be fun!
Prayer requests: That David would recover quickly from his cold. And that Andrew's infection would heal quickly and that he would be discharged tomorrow. I have been rather tired and blue this week. I don't know why, but you could pray for that as well. Thank you!!!!
Friday I stayed at home while some friends (Laura, Mary, and Heather) went to Notting Hill and shopped some. I was waiting for some friends from camp but they found out too late that the tickets they needed would be waaaay too expensive. So, I decided to get some groceries that I needed and a blanket. I searched for so long to find a simple blanket...apparently they prefer duvets here... But I was finally successful in finding a nice fleece blanket that will (hopefully) match my stuff at home. I was pretty disappointed that my friends from camp couldln't come, but I guess that's how things go sometimes. That night we (Laura, Heather, Mary, Katherine, Katlin, and I) went to a free concert (music class requirement again) at the National Portrait Gallery. It was a good concert and it was in interesting venue to have it in.
On Saturday we (Laura, Heather, Mary, David and I) went to Hampstead Heath. It's a large heath right on the edge of London. We finally rode in a double-decker bus, since the line (the subway line, that is) that we would have taken was shut down for the morning. It was a lot of fun to ride in the top and look down on everything. On the north end of the heath there is a large house that is called the Kentwood House. It has a ton of paintings put there by someone who bought the house solely to display his collection of paintings and books, etc. It was very impressive and very quiet as those sorts of houses are apt to be. Sadly, I had the hiccups almost the entire time... And David continued to give me funny looks every time I hiccuped which made me laugh and then I would do a sort of laugh/hiccup/laugh... David also brought a friend (Shannon) with him who is also studying abroad in London. She was a lot of fun and very sweet. I think we'll be hanging out with her again. After Hampstead Heath we (David, Shannon, Heather, Laura, Patrick, Chris, Mary, and I) went to visit Andrew in the hospital. Andrew had a blister on his toe that popped and got infected. He had to be hospitalized because the infection got so bad. He is still in the hospital, hopefully for the last night. They are hoping to discharge him tomorrow at some point, tomorrow being Monday.
Today we (Laura and I) went to church at the Every Nations church with David again. It was good again and again we were invited to have lunch, but once again we had to decline. Laura was going to meet her aunt, who lives in London and David is sick and wasn't feeling up to it. After that I made a quick pasta dish for myself to use up the alfredo sauce (I made some from scratch yesterday!!) and then I proceeded to break my glasses while making another batch of congo bars. I also talked to my twin, which made me very happy! :-) It was so nice to talk to her again. I also got to talk to Mama (yay!!!) and get an update on a little of what's going on at home. We also got the glasses stuff worked out. Then I went to watch a movie with Dr. Oehler and his wife and Laura, Chris, David, Heather, and Mary. We watched The Wind That Shakes The Barley.... That was a horribly depressing and violent and gory movie... I would not, could not recommend it... Then, because it was so depressing, we (Laura, Mary, Heather, and I) watched Bridget Jones' Diary to end the day on a slightly happier note.
Tomorrow (again, Monday) we (Laura, Heather, Mary, David, and I) are going to go to Canterbury and explore it all day long. :-) That should be fun!
Prayer requests: That David would recover quickly from his cold. And that Andrew's infection would heal quickly and that he would be discharged tomorrow. I have been rather tired and blue this week. I don't know why, but you could pray for that as well. Thank you!!!!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday and Wednesday
I foresee Tuesdays and Wednesdays providing little material for a blog... I had class both days. Tuesday I had 'The Active Art of Listening and Public Performance in London' and the 'History of Science in London'. Wednesday I had 'Shakespeare and Drama' and 'World War II'. We went to a free concert for the second half of our music class. It was several pieces by Haydn and Mendelssohn. I enjoyed it.
Other than that I did not do too much aside from read more Bleak House and cook congo bars. For anyone who doesn't know what those are, they are essentially chocolate chip cookies in bar form. They are *amazing*! I couldn't find semi-sweet chocolate chips so I had to use milk chocolate chips...I like the semi-sweet ones better... I'll have to look around and see if I can't find them elsewhere... :-) I am really enjoying cooking in our kitchen! Also, since I didn't buy much of the same stuff at home, like potatoes, rice, meat, and other foods, I can't compare the prices which probably lends a lot to me staying sane. :-)
Prayer Requests: Creecy heard back and heard that the surgery went well. Thank you, God! I have had a three day migraine and I'm not really sure why. :-/ I think that's all. Thank you so much!!
Other than that I did not do too much aside from read more Bleak House and cook congo bars. For anyone who doesn't know what those are, they are essentially chocolate chip cookies in bar form. They are *amazing*! I couldn't find semi-sweet chocolate chips so I had to use milk chocolate chips...I like the semi-sweet ones better... I'll have to look around and see if I can't find them elsewhere... :-) I am really enjoying cooking in our kitchen! Also, since I didn't buy much of the same stuff at home, like potatoes, rice, meat, and other foods, I can't compare the prices which probably lends a lot to me staying sane. :-)
Prayer Requests: Creecy heard back and heard that the surgery went well. Thank you, God! I have had a three day migraine and I'm not really sure why. :-/ I think that's all. Thank you so much!!
Pictures from Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath
Here are some pictures from our trip on Monday!
This is me at Stonehenge! The wind blew all the time...
Here is another picture of some of the rocks. You can see a small bulge on top of the tallest rock; that was a woodworking method they used to make the rocks on top stay up. They pounded a hole the same size and shape as the bulge in the rock that went on top to make it stay.
This is Salisbury Cathedral. You can see the scaffolding on the sides. They are working on a 29 year project to renovate it. They started in 1986 and are planning to be done by 2015.
These are two Cedars of Lebanon that were planted in the cloister in Salisbury Cathedral a long time ago. It was amazing to get to see two of them up close! The Bible talks about Cedars of Lebanon a lot and it was neat to get to see some!
Here are some of the shops around Salisbury. They look so typically English. Many of them, like many in London, have not changed very much since they were built.
Here is a view of Bath from our bus. It's not a very good picture, but the best one I could get. Bath is very large and sprawls over several hills and down into the valleys between. It's also a very pretty town. Sometime in the next couple of months, I am going to go back and explore it more. The river that runs through the middle is beautiful! I want to wander up and down that as well.
This is me at Stonehenge! The wind blew all the time...
Here is another picture of some of the rocks. You can see a small bulge on top of the tallest rock; that was a woodworking method they used to make the rocks on top stay up. They pounded a hole the same size and shape as the bulge in the rock that went on top to make it stay.
This is Salisbury Cathedral. You can see the scaffolding on the sides. They are working on a 29 year project to renovate it. They started in 1986 and are planning to be done by 2015.
These are two Cedars of Lebanon that were planted in the cloister in Salisbury Cathedral a long time ago. It was amazing to get to see two of them up close! The Bible talks about Cedars of Lebanon a lot and it was neat to get to see some!
Here are some of the shops around Salisbury. They look so typically English. Many of them, like many in London, have not changed very much since they were built.
Here is a view of Bath from our bus. It's not a very good picture, but the best one I could get. Bath is very large and sprawls over several hills and down into the valleys between. It's also a very pretty town. Sometime in the next couple of months, I am going to go back and explore it more. The river that runs through the middle is beautiful! I want to wander up and down that as well.
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