London: Day 11 (May 23, 2012)

Today was a class day.  We worked on the rhythm of Shakespearean Sonnets in my speech class.  I think I could have been a really good Shakespearean actor if I had chosen that path.  In my historic dance class we learned a dance called the Alexandresca.  It originated in Italy.  Here is a link to some other people doing the dance, if you are curious about what it is.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlGGzGP18g8

We didn’t see a show this evening.  I tried to go to the temple but was unsuccessful due to trains breaking down.  The train I was on didn’t actually break down, but another train did and it caused havoc on the rest of the trains.  I didn’t arrive until well after the last session had already started.  The temple is actually a couple of miles from the train station and I couldn’t find a cab to take me there so I could at least see it.  So I tried to figure out if I could walk there and the answer was no, well you probably could, but there isn’t really a sidewalk…  So I turned around and started to make my way back to London which also took a long time, apparently the broken train was still causing problems.  


Tomorrow we are touring the Globe Theater.

London: Day 10 (May 22, 2012)

Today we went to Hampton Court.  This palace is most famed for being one of the palaces of Henry VIII.  When I woke up this morning I thought, "Henry VIII was not a nice person.  I'm not sure I want to go and see where he lived."  But I have to say it was quite fascinating!  And it is where Elizabeth I grew up. Other monarchs lived there as well such as William and Mary II.  There was a lot going on there.  We were there all day.  I was the last person from our group to leave and I felt like I still hadn't seen everything.  But I was exhausted and couldn't have absorbed anymore.

The funny thing about me being the last person to leave is that everyone else got caught in some train delay and it took them 3 hours to get back to London (it should only take 40ish minutes).  I was about half an hour behind the rest of the group and got back to London in a little over an hour.  They were still stuck in train traffic and I was stopping at the grocery store.  The wicked mortal in me felt some satisfaction in the justice that I had been abandoned and left to find my own way home.  But then I have to confess that they did try calling me to tell me that they were leaving, but I didn't feel my phone vibrating.  I am grateful that I didn't.

We saw a new musical tonight called Matilda.  It was great.  It is based on the book and was a high energy show where most of the main characters are elementary school age children.  What I loved about it is that these kids still sound like kids.  They aren't being asked to sing like adults.  This makes voice teachers happy.  And now there are a bunch of new songs that you can assign to children taking voice lessons.

Here are some of my pictures of Hampton Court.

This is the ceiling to the Anne Bolyn Gate.  It is an archway structure in the front of the palace.  This is the roof of the arch.

These are the stairs leading to the private rooms of King William.

I was very fascinated by the chimneys of the palace.  They all had different brick designs on them.  I took several pictures, but I won't make you look at all of them.

This is the armory in Williams part of the palace, the walls are decorated with swords, daggers, guns and drums.  It was pretty awesome.

 "There is nothing to rival an English garden."  10 points if you can tell me what movie?
It is really true.  You can spend as long in the gardens as you do in the palace.  Beautiful and Vast!

Complete with a maze garden.  I only came to one dead end.  I think I did pretty well, for a beginner.

This little plaque announces the center of the maze.

A view of the palace from the rose garden.  Sadly the rose garden is not yet blooming.  But there was wisteria and lilacs in other places of the garden which are some of my favorites.

London: Day 9 (May 21, 2012)

Today was a class day so we spent the day here in our set of London townhouses.  It was actually a busy day.  I didn’t get to have lunch until 4 PM, which meant that during our guest speaker from 2-4, I was quite sleepy.  

Tonight we saw a new play at the National Theatre call Moon over a Rainbow Shawl.  It takes place in the slums of Trinidad post WWII.  It was depressing, but a well done show.

The best part of the day was walking home from the National Theater as we crossed the bridge over the River Thames there was an incredible view of St. Paul’s Cathedral.  It was all lit up, with lights shining on the dome.  It looked like a painting it was truly breathtaking.  I took a picture, but those are things that will never look the same on film or in digital whatever.  You really have to have been there to see it.

London: Day 8 (May 20, 2012)

I went to church with Darren today and it was wonderful.  I love that I can go to church in Huddersfield England and aside from a few dialect things feel that it is all so familiar and feel so much at home.  Church was great.  I started to write down the British phrases that made me smile.  It really is amazing.  I understand what they are saying, but it really is in some ways a different language.  I was also enjoying hearing the Yorkshire (properly pronounced “Yourkshur”) accent, it is different than what I have been hearing in London.  They sound like the servants on Downton Abbey, if you have seen that TV Series.  Here are a few phrases that I wrote down:

            I have a massive testimony…

            Give a cuddle (or a hug)

            Just have a week think on it and get back to me

            She’s completely horrendous!

            I completely get to the end of my tether.

            …needed to repent each day for bits and bobs.

After church we drove to Castle Hill for a quick look at the valley.  There once was a Medieval Castle on the hill, it no longer stands but you can still see the well and how the structure was laid out (the placard with the explanation and drawings is also very helpful).  There is a stone tower there now that was built in the Victorian era and is called the Victoria Tower.  Darren called it a folly, because it isn’t really anything, just an empty building to honor the queen.   But the view from the hill was amazing.

Daisies grow wild in England right along side the dandelions.

Afterwards we grabbed something to eat and rushed to the bus station.  Thankfully the bus was running late, because so were we.  But I got home with out a glitch (except that I almost left my bag on the bus when transferring to the train, but I didn’t) and I even got from the train station home with out getting lost all by myself.

So, if you ever have the opportunity to go to Huddersfield, England, GO!  It is amazing.  I loved it!  I would gladly go again.  Thanks Darren!

Just FYI:  May 20th is Eliza Doolittle Day.  In Just you Wait she sings, "Next week on the twentieth of May, I proclaim Liza Doolittle Day!" So Happy Eliza Doolittle Day!

London: Day 7 (May 19, 2012)

 This morning Charly got up early (on her day off) and met me at the underground and escorted me to the train station to catch the train/bus to Huddersfield.  She's amazing!   As I was walking to the underground one of the porters in my building asked me where I was going and I told him Huddersfield.  He laughed and said he had never heard that one before and wanted to know why I was going there.  I told him I had a friend that lived there.  Then Charly kept kind of chuckling about how now I couldn’t go to the lake country or to Preston and that there was nothing in Huddersfield.  But I want to make it know that Huddersfield is a DELIGHTFUL place!  I had a fantastic 24 hours there!

Huddersfield is about an hour’s drive from Haworth, which is where the Brontë family lived.  So we went to what is now called the Brontë Village (a tourist trap) and took a tour of the Brontë Parsonage.  Just in case your high school teachers didn’t make you read 19^th Century British literature, let me clarify.  Charlotte Brontë is most known for her novel, Jane Eyre and her sister Emily Brontë is most known for her novel, Wuthering Heights.  Anyway, the restored Parsonage (their father was a parson) was pretty much like most restored homes/museums.  Towards the end of out tour the church bells started to ring.  It was really awesome and gave our tour such authenticity.  The Parsonage is next door to the church so they were really loud.  Darren said that there must be a wedding or something, because they only ring church bells for services or for other special occasions.  When we came out to the front of the parsonage, there was a bride and groom having their wedding pictures taken.  She must have been a die hard Brontë fan.  But it was awesome to hear the church bells.

But what I found most fascinating was seeing the country side that is so often described in these novels as well as others.  Things like the heath and the moors.  I know have seen them.  It is a lean countryside that is rough, cold and overcast more than it is sunny, whereas the country side I saw on the bus and train down closer to London was lush and full of trees and foliage.  Heath refers to a kind of foliage, mostly heather.  It kind of reminds me of the sagebrush in Utah.  Here is some heath with the local sheep.

Moors are large flat hills.  You can see them in the distance.  The pictures just don’t do justice to how beautiful it really is.  The moors are in the very back of this picture in the haze. 

Also I was very taken with these stone fences.  Darren said they are call dry stonewall.  They are made with out any cement.  The stones are just stacked.  Apparently, there is an trick or an art to it and you can take classes to learn how to build dry stonewall fences.

Also, Huddersfield is a town that was built up around a textile mill of the industrial revolution.  Yes, it very much made me think of Gaskell’s North and South.  The mills are still there but they have all been turned into other things like schools or commercial space.  The house that I stayed in was the home that was built for one of the mill managers.

Darren was performing his one man show at the church that evening so we drove back from Haworth and then set everything up for his show.  He did a great job.  I was really impressed by first of all how he memorized all of that and that he was able to keep our attention that long.  It was fantastic.