Week 4: Burgers and Curry

Sunday-Saturday

13-19 October

Church here is always an adventure. I have to travel about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there, play the organ in sacrament, piano in Primary, teach a music lesson, teach a regular Primary lesson, stay for choir practice, and then travel an hour and fifteen minutes back home again. So the church part of my Sunday starts at 7:00am and goes until 3:00pm. It was raining on the 13th, so the commute was even more difficult because everything was wet and slippery. But I laughed it off.

Monday we had a special lecture from a visiting BYU History Professor about the slave trade in Britain. It was actually one of the most interesting thing I've learned about on this trip, even including all the art I learned about in Italy and France. Britain played a very interesting role in the slave trade, but also in the abolishment of the slave trade which I never knew about. Someday I'll have to talk about it with those who are interested, but this blog is probably not the best place to do that.

Tuesdays are school days. I got some delicious curry from a restaurant right up my street. It was so good. Unfortunately I threw up that night (it wasn't from the curry). We had a day trip planned for the next day that I didn't want to miss, but I just wasn't feeling up to it.

At 6am on Wednesday morning I was definitely not up for being on a bus all day, but I got a serious case of fear of missing out, and I was afraid I would always regret not going. I don't think I would have though. We went to Stratford-upon-Avon and toured Anne Hathaway's house (that's Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway, not the Princess Diaries one, although it probably would have been cooler if it was her house). Then we went to the Shakespeare center. It was so crowded, but there really isn't anything else to do in Stratford except Shakespeare stuff so I guess it's understandable. They showed some weird video clips of the different ways Shakespeare plays have been interpreted over the years, did a little presentation, and then showed us the first folio, which is the written collection of some Shakespeare works. Then we toured Shakespeare's house with a bunch of German tourists.

My philosophy on life. Haha just kidding.

Next we drove to Oxford. I was really looking forward to this because of all the history blah, blah, blah, but mainly because lots of Harry Potter scenes were filmed there. The town is so cute (it reminded me of Bath) and there are good-looking people all over the place! What makes it better is that everyone there are all Oxford students so you can be sure they are both smart and good-looking. We went on a guided tour of Oxford, and saw the outside of one lousy filming site. Then we got on the bus back home.

Hello Oxford!

Behind these windows houses the filming location for a scene from the Harry Potter movies. I love movies, film sets, celebrities, and Harry Potter, so I was excited to see this even though I was still far away.

This was inspiration for Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland.

Friday we went to Hampstead to see Keats' house. I don't really know why we keep going to the houses of dead authors and poets, because after a while they all seem the same, and we only end up being there for five minutes. I decided to leave Hampstead and go to Camden Market before meeting up for an art lecture at the National Gallery.

The home of Keats and the Braun's.

Lamppost in Hampstead.

Curry!

Camden Market was pretty cool. There was a slight punk vibe at some of the shops which gave the place a really distinct atmosphere. I had a little bit of retail therapy, tried Thai curry for the first time, and then caught a bus to the National Gallery.

After some lecturing about art, I decided on a whim to go see the show Top Hat. We had some time before the show started so we went to Shake Shack! Top Hat was based off the movie Top Hat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It was filled with nice costumes and tap dancing, and was overall just a fun time.

Even though the middle of my week was a little rough, I got to have curry 3 times and Shake Shack 3 times which is never rough!