Life is full of
opportunities to serve the beautiful people around us.
Well guys, I am
finally in London!
Thursday morning, the 11th, we started out by
driving our ElboBus to Brussels where the train station is. We took the
Eurostar that goes under the Channel and I was told I slept for the most part.
At the station, a pair of LDS missionaries walked by and of course we all waved
at them yelling, ‘Hey Elders!’ Turns out a couple of the girls in our group
actually knew them! Crazy.
We arrived and
split off into smaller groups as we made our way to the London Centre. We took
the Tube, London’s underground subway which is very similar to the metro in
Paris, to one of the closer stops and walked a few blocks from there to get
where I am now. The Brigham Young University’s London Centre.
If you feel so
inclined and want a letter from London, feel free to write to me. Maybe include
an extra envelope and stamp so you can actually get one back…
But really.
The London
Centre is wonderful. I’m in a room with seven other girls all piled on four
bunk beds, with one drawer and one small closet each. It’s actually a great
change from living out of my suitcase though, so I’m grateful for the extra
space. I’m on the bottom bunk and there are little notes covering the boards
above me.
This place is
compact width wise but has a LOT of stairs. I have to go up four flights of
stairs to get to my room. My thoughts towards these stairs? Bring it.
We start classes
on Monday. I have one class that day. Mondays and Wednesdays I have one class,
Tuesdays I have two classes, and Thursdays I have three classes. Friday
classes, you ask? Oh right, I don’t have any.
Friday evening
we went to a BBC Symphony Orchestra concert. It was wonderful, but no surprises
there. At the end of the performance, they did an opera sort of story about a
clockmaker and how his overly flirtatious wife seduces a poet, a banker, and a
muleteer. At the end, while we all applauded for the performance, I turned to
my neighbor and asked her if we were really just clapping for adultery…
Saturday morning
I went on a run through Hyde Park. I reread that sentence a few times, letting
it soak in. It’s been hard realizing that I’m in a foreign country. I mean, obviously
I know I am, but really grasping the idea and fact that I am truly in London,
has been a challenge. It’s a dream I thought wouldn’t come true so soon, but
here I am. In London.
The run was
refreshing, to say the least. It was a struggle getting back up all the stairs
though. Around nine o’clock we met with a local Bishop to get our ward
assignments. He was from one of the two stakes in the area and only had the
assignments from his stake. The other half of us are assigned into the Hyde
Park Stake. So today, instead of going to my ward, I went to the Hyde Park ward
with about half of the students who also didn’t get their assignments yet.
I’ll get back to
that in a second. After the meeting, a couple girls and I walked to Portobello
market. It was so much fun! There were a lot of people—we got some pastries (of
course) and fish and chips on our way back to the Centre. It was soo good. I would put a picture of the market up, but the internet is being slow and I have dinner soon...priorities.
We had
to go quickly to be back in time to get our tickets from the professors to see a
matinee showing of Shakespeare’s Richard III at the Globe Theatre. Yeah. Read that sentence again. One more time.
One of the actors also was the actor who played Barty Crouch Sr. in the Harry Potter movies, so that was really cool. We finished off
our evening with going to Oxford street and looking at potential shopping
areas. I took ‘pack lightly’ a little too seriously and have no clothes. But no
worries, I will soon. We finished off our evening with chocolate bars, loud
conversation with lots of laughter, and peanut butter facials.
Anyway.
Not that I haven’t
thoroughly enjoyed the experiences of being in different wards, it was so nice
to be in one that speaks English. Especially the hymns! I love singing and even
more when I don’t feel like I’m butchering the words. During the third hour, we
met with the Stake President, who is very young and very strong in the gospel. He
was very kind to us, answering any and all questions we had, and giving us tips
on how to experience London. I got my ward assignment to be in the Whitechapel
ward, along with two other girls in my program. Next week is Stake Conference,
so I won’t be at Whitechapel for another week after that.
I’m really
excited to attend my new ward and get a calling there. From what I know about
it, they are a ward that hasn’t had their own building for a while and
currently meet in a building that takes about an hour and a half to commute to.
The number of attending members has halved since this happened and the ward
missionaries have been struggling as well. I hope that I can contribute to this
ward and help in any way that they need me to.
The weather is
gorgeous—reminds me of home. It’s wet but the sky is blue, cold but the hot
chocolate keeps me warm, the leaves are falling, and a pair of gloves will be
my best friend very soon. I will try to take more pictures soon because since
being in London, I haven’t taken many. Maybe it’s because I know I’ll be here
for eight more weeks instead of just one more night.
Here are a couple more
funny and embarrassing pictures from our peanut butter escapade. I can confidently
say that I’ve been immature in a total of 5 different countries now.
There ya go.
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