Kate in the UK!: Fish and Chips and Wagamamas!

Hey! It has been a while! These past few days have been wonderful! I feel that they have been sort of, recovery days. Not just from Paris, but from this whole trip in general. I think all of the lack of sleep, all of the walking, all of the stuffing my brain with knowledge, and all of the eating finally caught up with me and I just crashed! Crashed in a good way, though!

Saturday, I went to a beautiful place. A beautiful place called Hyde Park! Hyde Park is just a hop and a skip away from the London Centre. One thing that is totally awesome about London, is its parks. And Hyde Park is definitely one of them. So this Saturday also happened to be one of few sunny days here. I also had tons of reading to do for class. So, as you can guess, all of these things added up quite nicely! Me, good ol’ Mr. Sun, and “Sense and Sensibility” had a nice little date together in Hyde Park. Although, if I’m being honest I didn’t really get that much reading done. When the sun was shining bright, I couldn’t help just laying back into the grass and basking in the warmth of the sun. And when there were cute little British kids around me running and playing, I couldn’t help but watch them frolic. And when teenagers start a pick up soccer game on the grass right by me, well I just can’t help but cheer them on quietly. So needless to say, Hyde Park was a success in many, many ways.

So to add to a “chill” Saturday, a group of us went on a walk and then to a delicious restaurant called Wagamamas. This food was delicious Asian food! That is something I love about being in a new place is trying new restaurants and finding new foods I like! Wagamamas is definitely on my list!

Sunday at church, I got to go to Primary for the first time! We didn’t have to teach this time, so we just helped out with the kids! Oh my word. These children are daaaaaaarling. I thought I liked British accents on attractive guys, well British accents are even better on cute kids! For sharing time we talked about getting priesthood blessings. It is interesting to see the ways they grasp the concepts. They’re a bunch of smart cookies! So the rest of Sunday was spent reading, memorizing Shakespeare sonnets, sleeping, eating, laughing, skyping with my brother, and wishing my amazing Mom a happy Mothers Day! Great day.

So because we were in Paris most of last week, we didn’t have to have class! However, now, we have to make it up this week… We have so much reading due and a paper this week! If doing homework was hard at home, it’s even harder in London! I mean, I’m in LONDON for goodness sakes! So after three hours of class, we just had to get out. We took a nice walk through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. And You know I kept my eyes out for Prince William and Kate! I really want to move in to Kensington Palace with them. I think they’d love the company don’t you?

So last night we saw a play called “Written on the Heart.” Sadly, it wasn’t a musical. Haha but it was still interesting! It took me a little to understand what was going on, and it was a tad too long, but overall good! It was about William Tyndale and his translation of the Bible. Which tied in very nicely with what we are learning in our history class right now!

So today was SO awesome. After another three hours of class, a few of us head over to Trafalgar square! First, we ate at a pub called “Sherlock Holmes.” Yes, you heard me! Sherlock Holmes has a Pub named after him! This pub was so cool! The food was absolutely delicious, (I got the fish and chips) and the atmosphere was so fun! It was almost like a museum because they had old photos, stories, and gadgets of Sherlock Holmes. I reeeeeeally wish he was real! Really fun stuff at this place.

After stuffing our faces we headed to the National Gallery! Ohhhhh man I loved this place. Okay so I’ll be honest, I really thought that by now I would be kind of sick of museums. But I feel quite the opposite! I can’t get enough! I have LOVED going to all these museums. Having seen so much art, I am learning a lot and starting to develop my own thoughts and opinions about the different styles. Thus far, I have come to the decision that my favorite style of art is Impressionism. I love it because rather than trying to paint the scene/person/object, exactly how it is, these artists are able to paint not just what they see but how they feel. I love when I look at a painting and don’t just see an image, but see a feeling as well.

So that’s it! I haven’t taken many pictures the last few days but I will post what I’ve got!