Week 7: Beginning of Christmas

Sunday-Saturday

03-09 November 2013

On Sunday I was able to go to Stake Conference, which was really nice, and then my apartment had a roommate dinner. Cooking for 9 in our apartments kitchen isn't really easy, but we like to stay positive in Apartment #1. In fact, we were so upbeat and fun that we ended up having a sing off with another apartment across the way. And then our professor's family who live directly across from us challenged us to a dance off. We were so prepared, but they chickened out. A dance battle is in the immediate future though, which should be pretty funny.

Tuesday was Guy Fawkes Day which is a celebration over a failed conspiracy to blow up Parliament. There was a fireworks display happening but it was an hour away from my apartment so I didn't make it.

Wednesday we took another day trip. We ended up in Portsmouth which is kind of like Liverpool in that it's right by the water and they do a lot of shipping stuff there. We went to another Maritime Museum. This one was pretty neat because they had an actual ship that they got out of the ocean and partly restored. They also had lots of fun interactive games, which were for children, but I still enjoyed.

There's the ship

One can only handle so much of Maritime Museums before getting bored, so I left a little bit early and went to the Cadbury Outlet. It wasn't as incredible as I thought it would be, and I don't even like Cadbury chocolate that much (which is kind of sacrilegious when you're in England), but I found my favorite chocolate from Europe which made me really happy!

We had one more ship to look at before we left. Turns out, the bottom of the ship was where the opening scene to the Les Mis movie was filmed! I didn't get a picture because no one told me until after we left. I don't remember the names of any of these ships, but the one that was actual in that water that we got to walk around in was neat. It actually is still used by the Royal Navy, and they host dinners on it. It was massive from the outside, but everyone was so short back in the day that things felt very claustrophobic. And from what our tour guide said about the lifestyle of sailors, things were pretty gross on the ship. And painful. I'm glad I live in the 21st century.

Just down there a starved Hugh Jackman sang his heart out to Les Mis. 

The happy looking part of the ship.

The belly of the beast. Some pretty horrible stuff happened down here while gross rats watched.

I still don't know how I feel about these shirts... (A futtock is curved timber used to make the ship)

We left Portsmouth for Chawton which is actually where Jane Austen lived and wrote. We got to tour a house and I got to play an old time piano. It was nice, and they had cool displays up for us to look at.

Dress worn in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

I was very concentrated.

Our last stop was Winchester Cathedral. Like most cathedrals it was beautiful and calm. I found Jane Austen's grave thing inside the cathedral, took some pictures, and then walked around some cute shops that already had Christmas lights up. We always seem to go to the cutest places for the shortest amount of time. Luckily London has some lights up now too!

Thursday I ended up being late to class so I tried to rush my way through the Underground. And I ended up falling flat on my face on the escalator. I've fallen going up stairs a lot, and it's never pleasant. Miraculously I was the only one around, which is pretty lucky because it was rush hour. My knee still hurts, but my ego is doing much better. I saw a Christmas ice rink on the way home from school which helped ease the pain too!

Friday I saw Gravity which was such a good movie! The theatre I saw it at was really weird though, and it felt like I was in a home theatre in someones basement.

Saturday I tried to go to a Christmas lighting ceremony at Oxford Circus. A lot of bands were performing, and then Ty Burrell from Modern Family was going to turn the lights on. I thought I would be able to get a good view but it was PACKED! Instead of giving up, I decided to do some shopping. I didn't get to see the performances, or the lights turn on, but I did get to see a little bit of fireworks which put me in a festive mood. Since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here Christmas prep starts right after Halloween and I have been loving every minute of it!

I love fireworks, especially when they're Christmas themed!