The Continued Adventures of Shannon in London (to Satisfy the Masses)

To continue on with my brief summaries...

June 27: [This is from my journal, but I thought it was too good not to add in here.] The first day of classes is always rough. Always. You have to find the rooms and you sit through syllabus talk (which makes my palms sweat and has me counting points before I've even turned in any assignments). Classes are worse when you are in London, when it's 3 hours of art history at 8am and when you know you better get up because your professor could literally come get up.

A few days later, I still stand by that. I have two classes in London. You'd think we just get to play the whole time, but there are actually real classes. I'm taking VASTU 101 (which is Drawing) and English 317R (which is Writing Creative Nonfiction). Don't even say those are just easy classes because producing art is hard work.

More importantly than class, we went to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for lunch. It's the oldest pub in England and famous writers like Charles Dickens used to dine there. I got my first fish & chips.

June 28: Thankfully, we didn't have to do classes two days in a row. I mean, who does that? :) We did a walk in the city, hitting spots like the Royal Air Force Cathedral, the Somerset House (which had AMAZING sculptures by Ai Weiwei outside) and St. Paul's Cathedral.

This is as good a time as any to say that you can't stick out a ten-foot pole in England without hitting a cathedral. I just used the word "cathedral" twice in that last paragraph. I would argue that there are more churches here than in Utah. And they are absolutely beautiful buildings. The stained glass, the huge organs... I'm glad that we keep going into all of these.

The next adventure was going into the Museum of London. I loved it, but it is an enormous museum because England has 100 times the amount of history that America has. I swear, I'm like a 4-year-old because I kept running to all of the interactive things, like the "Medieval Game of Life" (where my character thankfully survived the Bubonic Plague). The more recent London years were fun because of the Beatles memorabilia and the Suffagettes section (like the UK Susan B. Anthonys). I also loved the Great Fire of London exhibit (although the display didn't blow up when the fire hit, which was a little disappointing). I got this shot for my dad:

Can you imagine if firefighters now had to use this stuff? That bucket was heavy. No wonder half of London burned down. Anyway, that night was the best part of all. We went to see "Richard III" at the Old Vic. My professor tried to explain the whole plot to us beforehand, but I'll spare you the horror of hearing about the Lancasters and Yorks and trying to get all of the Henrys and Edwards in order. The play had Kevin Spacey in it. THE Kevin Spacey. Oscar-winning Kevin Spacey. And it was directed by Sam Mendes. As a movie buff, I was stoked. It turned out to be the most awesome play I've ever seen ever. Spacey played the role terrifically, giving Richard a dark comical side behind his mad desire for power. There was a point at the end when he was hanging upside down that I worried about the guy. (His face was getting all red... maybe the British want to kill off our good actors? You've already won, Brits. You have Colin Firth.) But he made it through for us to give him a triple standing ovation.

June 29: More classes. Oh joy. But we actually went out for our art class to the National Gallery. My professor was correct in saying that there's no way to tackle that gallery in one day. It's just too massive. I got to stare at Botticelli's "Venus and Mars" for a half hour though (which sounds awful until you actually try it and then it's rather fascinating) and then I went and oogled the Monets for a while.

After a full day of class, a few of us decided to go to the Peter Pan park for the evening. You read that right. The Peter Pan park. You have to have a child with you to get in so we took our directors' kids. I wish I had grown up as a kid in England so I could go to that park every day. There is a huge pirate ship, several playgrounds, Pirate Island (which actually has water around it), teepees, musical things... it was awesome. And I'm 21.

You can kind of see the ship behind me there. (By the way, I swear that almost all of my pictures don't have me in them. I'm not that vain; I just thought I'd post the ones of me to prove that I am actually here. Satisfied?)

The day ended with me getting the UK versions of the first and last Harry Potter books. All was well. (You Potter nerds can say how clever I am now. Lol)

June 30: I might as well quickly finish off the month. We had class (which involves me drawing the negative spaces in a stack of chairs) and then several of us went off to an Arcade Fire concert that we planned several months before the trip.

It. Was. Awesome. Hyde Park is huge. As I tried to explain before, the parks in England aren't little things like in the U.S. So they fenced off part of the park specifically for this concert. And there were 60,000 people there. There were so many booths with food and stuff. Quite the party. Arcade Fire was great (there were quirky little videos to accompany the songs... and ribbon dancing), but honestly, I thought the best part came from the opening act of Mumford & Sons. They deserved a concert in Hyde Park all on their own. They sound just as excellent as on their album, even more so. They played a few new songs too. I have to say, though, that this concert was a new experience for me. We were close to the front of the stage with these 60,000 people so you can imagine the shoving. People here apparently get excited and throw their beers because I got hit three times. Yum. So I came home smelling like smoke and alcohol, but I had the sweet folky sounds of Mumford keeping a smile on my face.

Well, that's June, y'all. I'll be posting more about London and about our trip up north soon. Then maybe I'll finally be caught up, who knows?

And Now for Something Completely Different...

A big hello from across the pond!

(Okay, so I've been in the UK nearly 3 weeks but this is the first you're really hearing about it, thanks to my extremely busy schedule.)

The last couple of weeks have been the most awesome of my life. And since I'm so behind on blogging, why don't I just take you on a tour of my first bit of time in London...

First off, the flight. Unless you have flown for 12 hours before, you have no idea what it was like getting over to the UK. You want to sleep, but you can't because the person in front of you has his chair pushed all the way back and your pillow is too tiny. However, it was all worth it to finally make it to London. We arrived in Heathrow and took a cab down to the lovely London Centre.

It was still morning, and because our professors are so nice (and a bit cruel), they decided it would be an excellent idea to keep us up that entire day so we could overcome jet lag. So it was time for a tour of the area. Let me show you...

Can you believe that? I think that's the most ingenious thing I've discovered about London so far. They have all of these huge beautiful parks that people can use. If you take a walk down further, you run into this guy...

That is Prince Albert. It's the sweetest thing. He was married to Queen Victoria and he died quite young but Victoria loved him all her life. She made all of these monuments and buildings dedicated to him. Beat that, Will and Kate.

We actually live in a pretty "posh" part of London. At least, it's one of the most expensive places to live. And I guess Ginny Weasley (or the actress that plays her) lives somewhere nearby. That's when you know you've made it, friends. Cheers to BYU for owning this place.

So I will give you a rundown of the rest of my first London adventures (this may get a bit choppy as I do not want to bore you with the million things I've done). Here goes nothing.

June 24: Walked to Westminster Abbey. Saw Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square for the first time. Realized that London is HUGE. We ate lunch by the Thames and avoided an Indian man trying to sell us cheap sunglasses and Will & Kate memorabilia (I've name dropped them twice now, but my contract required one more). Saw Big Ben and Parliament. Embarrassingly, I thought of V for Vendetta right off the bat. No, I will not blow up Parliament (I'll save those kind of shenanigans for my trip to France). Westminster Abbey was absolutely gorgeous. There were a zillion people in line, but when you are a cool student traveling with 39 other students, you get in the secret back way. Could only take pictures in the cloister, but the cloister looked like Hogwarts so that was okay. It's a little creepy to think of how many royals are buried under that building. But it's also a powerful thing. I cried in the Poets' Corner. That's really the closest I'll ever be to some of those incredible writers while I'm on earth. I really wished I knew more about Catholicism, particularly to figure out why some of the coffins had animals (including a porcupine) at the feet of the person.

June 25: This was one of two free days that we have in the program. And we took advantage of every second. We started out with Portobello Road. This road has a market (amazingly called Portobello Market) that's open every Saturday. The street is a mile long or so and it's totally filled with little shops and stands. There are people performing on the street, too. It's great. My only purchases were two gorgeous necklaces. The designer said Taylor Swift bought from her stand and she had pictures to prove it. So goodness gracious, I have a necklace that Taylor Swift owns. That's right! Went to see "The Hoarder" next. We deemed him the Hoarder because it's this man who donated all of his stuff to London when he died to use as a museum. We were imagining really crazy stuff, but he had bits of destroyed Greek buildings, an Egyptian Tomb, paintings from people I've actually heard of in Humanities... it was wild. After that, we got tickets for a play in Leicester Square. It is called "The 39 Steps." It's definitely not a play that will make you sit down and think about your life, but it was super hilarious. We were in the front row, and the main actor totally spat on me at one point because we was enunciating his words. Actor spit is awesome.

*HARRY POTTER MOMENT* While we were in "Theatreland," I totally found Shaftesbury Avenue, where the trio gets apparated at the beginning of the seventh book. I nearly got run over by a double decker just like in the movie so I felt pretty legit. *MISCHIEF MANAGED*

June 26: Church. They split our big group into smaller groups so we can serve in different wards around the London area. We took a train out to the church building. We actually missed the first train and then we got onto the wrong train... it was a bit of a fiasco. But the important thing is that we got there. I now belong to the Clapham Common ward, which has been one of the great joys of being in London so far. I'm not kidding. The ward is tiny (I thought my home ward was getting small, but they don't even have a full bishopric), but the people are so strong. They really know the gospel and live it.

Well, folks, you'll have to wait until my art assignment is done to hear the next installment. I'll try to be better about posting from here on out, but the Internet is super slow so please check Facebook for tons more pictures. :)

How London Wears You Out

Dear Blogosphere,

You win. I really don't have the willpower to keep up with you. I admire the people that can keep up a blog all of the time. But here I am in London (I have been for a week and a half) and I have not blogged once. Not one single time. Oy. That doesn't mean I'm giving up on you, Blogosphere. It just means that you shouldn't expect me to be good at this sort of thing.

Love, Shannon

[P.S. To you lovely people reading this blog, this is my way of saying that being in London is a lot busier than I could have ever imagined. I go and go and go all day and then I come home and have to keep up with journaling and homework. Oh yeah, and sleeping is in there somewhere. I would post tonight if it weren't for the following facts: a) I have to wake up at 5 or so for our week-long journey to Scotland and b) I have a really really bad cold. I promise to actually update after the Scotland trip has come to a close. Good night and good luck.]

A Lil' British Update

So in approximately 36 hours, I will be on a plane to the beautiful city of London.

Let's pause one moment for a squee. SQUEE!

Ok, good. So since some people tell me that I am doing a terrible job at updating this blog (*cough* Kelli *cough*), I will give you a little update on how this trip to London has changed my summer.

1. Even if you are totally worn out from work, you keep going because you want lots of money to spend in London. I have been working since I got home from BYU (which is why this blog does not get updated... sorry to my 2 followers). It got a little stressful at times, but I pushed through and it looks like I won't be trying to pay for this trip for years like pesky student loans! Yay!

2. By the same token, you don't spend any money because you want lots of money to spend in London. I bought lunch fewer times than fingers on my right hand (or left hand, I guess), I went to exactly one movie (X-Men: First Class. And it was worth every darn penny) and I only splurged on necessary items (e.g. a camera case and Tina Fey's fabulous Bossypants).

3. Everything reminds you of London.

For example, I wore this shirt:

Now, normally, I would be walking around humming Beatles songs all day. Instead, I was walking around humming Beatles songs all day and thinking, "Oh my goodness, will we get to see Liverpool? Will I stand on Abbey Road? WILL I BE IN STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER?" Yeah. I'm legit.

There were a few occasions in particular this summer where England came up a lot. First, the Royal Wedding. Seriously, how could you have been on Planet Earth and not heard "Will & Kate" at least once? I was one of those who woke up at an ungodly hour to watch the ceremony (well, I attempted to but was misinformed of the start time so I only caught the tail end of it, but really, most of it was a wee bit dull). I want to be Kate Middleton. Not because she's now a princess. Maybe because she had the most beautiful wedding dress in the world. But mostly because she is just the classiest woman and she and William are actually in love in spite of a span of loveless marriages in the monarchy.

I learned from the wedding that British people are more reserved. (No smooch after the vows?) So I probably need to simmer down. I learned that I should buy a hat in London because it is the Land of Crazy Headdresses. The best examples were from Fergie's daughters via this nice little Cinderella spoof:

That ugly thing on the right was sold for millions on eBay. Oy. Finally, I learned that my primary goal in London should be to find/marry Prince Harry. The kid is a hunk, but what really got me was this moment.

William wasn't allowed to look at Kate when she walked down the aisle. Harry turned around and I thought he had said something cheeky to his brother, like "Dude, your wife is hot!" But what he really said was... "Wait until you see her."

That's right, ladies. Swoon away.

My other British reminders are from movies. The Harry Potter publicity makes me all kinds of happy. I'll be seeing the final movie in LONDON, people! Where it all began!

And then there's the King's Speech. I follow the Oscars like mad, and so I had to see the Best Picture winner. And let me tell you people, I've become a little obsessed. I adore Colin's perfect stutter, Geoffrey's quirky kindness and Helena's queenly manner. My favorite bit has to be when they are in Westminster Abbey. I cannot wait to be inside of that beautiful building. What a glorious place. I'll take pictures when I get there with my camera lovingly named Bertie. (You people that have seen the movie, sigh because I'm a dork. You people who haven't, slap yourself on the wrist, watch the movie, nod in recognition, and then sigh because I'm a dork.)

So here is the whole point of this rambling bit of words. London is going to be spectacular. But a Dove chocolate wrapper taught me something years ago, that applies even more fervently here today. It's the anticipation that makes the pleasure.

Everything Cool Comes from England

So I was looking up English musicians for my handy little British playlist found at the bottom of this blob. I originally thought that I'd want to brush up on some current British musicians so I'd be ready for British radio. Ummm, first off, people in English basically listen to the same stuff we do. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rhianna, Bruno Mars... all at the top of the charts right now. [And so is the song "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman, thanks to some awesome guy on "Britain's Got Talent." I'll have to post more about that obsession later.]

Second, almost every artist that I love started out in Britain. I knew about Coldplay, Natasha Bedingfield, Adele, Dido, Kate Nash, Lily Allen and a bunch of others. But seriously... La Roux, KT Tunstall, Keane, Travis, Oasis, Starsailor, Queen, MIKA, David Gray, Muse, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones... All of the cool stuff basically comes from Britain. Man, I'm starting to think this trip will be like going home.

Check out the playlist at the bottom for a taste of all the music that you never knew came from Britain (or maybe you did and I'm just a little dim).

How many hours?!

Hello, all!

I'm sorry that the posts have been minimal. I'm a college student... it's about time for finals... you understand. I will tell you what I just realized though.

I was checking my travel itinerary so I could input the information on my Study Abroad account. And guess what? First, I will have a 5-hour flight (ok, 4 hours and 51 minutes) to Philadelphia. Then I will have 2 and a half hours until my flight out of the country leaves. Then the actual flight to London will be 7 hours and 10 minutes (at least according to the powers that be... knowing airlines, it'll be longer).

Since I don't want to force you to do any ghastly math, let me put this together for you. It will take me 14 and a half HOURS to get to London. And that's not even counting getting through security and checking my baggage and making sure that all of my liquids are in little containers no more than 3 ounces. Oy.

I think I'm going to invest in some new apps for my iPod and a sleep mask. :)

Why England?

Maybe the answer is obvious. England is gorgeous; everyone in England has an awesome accent; being there is like being in Harry Potter; there are buildings older than anything in America; it is the place that spawned Doctor Who and The Office; there's a big clock so you always know what time it is. All good reasons. But none of them are my reason for going to England, although they are all nice perks.

My reason for going began when I was little, probably six or seven or so. And it's pretty much due to this man.

Yep, Roald Dahl. I grew up reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Matilda, Esio Trot, Boy, and all of those classics he wrote. He was completely radical for his day. He challenged children to push their imaginations as far as they could. Later, I absorbed books from Eva Ibbotson, Anthony Horowitz, J. K. Rowling (of course), and several others. These are the authors that made me want to be an author.

And what do these authors have in common? They all live in England. So I soon set up an equation in my mind. You go to England, you become a brilliant writer. Of course, now that I'm in college, I know that it's not that easy and that there are plenty of genius American authors. But that little childhood wish sticks with me. To really appreciate the English language, to gather up the history and landscapes and atmosphere of these authors I so admire (a group which has expanded to include Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, William Wordsworth, and a million others), to become something of a true author myself, I have to go to England.

In this way, England is my Mecca. It's a journey that's something like 15 years in the making. So yeah, I want to see a West End musical really badly. I want to hunt down Daniel Radcliffe at the Harry Potter premiere and dance through the daffodils at the Lake District. But I want more. I want this journey to make me a better writer, a better person. I want this trip to change my life.