London 07.31.09

Right now it is 1am and I am just barely got the chance to sit down and write about my day. I have been getting ready for Scotland because we will be leaving in approx. 6 hours, I should probably be getting to bed soon. I figure that I can sleep on the train ride there. Today we traveled two hours to Chesterfield. This is where Haddon Hall and Chatsworth House. Haddon Hall was built in the 1300’s and was not any different from what it was back then. There were a few minor changes but the changes were done only a few hundred years after that. It was a much different style from what I have been seeing while here abroad, and it quite nice to have change. It was interesting to see how people lived that long ago I now know why they only live to 40 if they were lucky The things they ate and did were not very healthy for them. All of their floor was stone floors and they used big wood blocks for all of their furniture. The stone rocks on the floor were so hard to walk on because they had been worn down so much from all of the people walking on them. After a couple hours there we took a bus to The Chatsworth House. This house is extremely famous because of a lot of films that are done there. Pride and Prejudice is the one that I got excited about Mr. Darcy lived in this house for that movie. We walked through the same rooms he did and we also saw the statue of him in there. We started out our tour with the beautiful gardens there. There were acres and acres of them. There were boulders set up in places that made it look so pretty. The reflecting pool was so pretty, it sat right in front of the house and was a mile long I swear. It mainly looked like a forest when we were walking through it The tall trees shadowed over us and there were lush green plants everywhere. Whitney brushed against one of these plants and thinks it was stinging needle. That wasn’t the most pleasant thing for her to experience. She handled it like a champ!
I go to Scotland tomorrow and when I get back I will only have one day left in London, I can’t believe that. It is going to fly by I think. Beccah and I are excited though because we got five more people to come along with us, so we should have a great time!

London 07.30.09

Ok now this month has gone by way too fast!! I am down to my last page of my itinerary packet for this trip and now I am down to just a small number of days left. I have loved everything about this last month but there are a few thing that I may be looking forward to when I get back home:
1.not living out of a suitcase
2.no exchange rate
3.moms home cooked meals
4.less rain
5.ice in my drinks
6.free refills
7.own bed
8.cell phone
9. last and not least...my family!

I have actually enjoyed not having a car, if I could ride a subway everyone where that would suit me just fine. Lets not forget that I get my wisdom teeth out the day after I get back, so that kind of puts a damper on the whole return home, but I should make it through! Dentistry and I do not get along, so hopefully it will not be a long recovery.
Today we were suppose to go as a group to the Roman Baths but we had a last minute change to the “shwedual,” as the Brits would say it. So we ended up having a free day. Some friends and I chose to go to the Windsor Castle about 25 minutes out of the city by train. We did do a little bit of the sleeping in but then we started out our day with another train ride. This castle is a main residency for The Queen Elizabeth. They tour part of the castle but then the royal family can stay in the other part of it. This castle was more like a mini town. The property was huge. It was extremely midlevel looking and had a lot of greenery all over it. I am not surprised that is green everywhere here for the fact that it rains everyday that ends with y! I am not going to complain because I can stand the rain as long as the temperature is as good as it has been. I am not excited about going to Utah with the 100 degree weather, that will be a real big change from here. Anyways the castle was very worth going to see it. We spent a ton of time just looking at the landscape, but then we got into a line to tour the inside. We first saw a doll house that was made for the Queen. This miniature house was very large overall. It was fully plumbed and had electricity. All of the mini chairs and beds were so great and had a ton of detail on them. After that we looked through all of the Royal Apartments. My favorite part from this exhibit was the way they displayed all of the old weapons from the wars and such. It was pretty and very pleasing to look through. All of the rooms were beautiful and had a lot of wood work done on them. There was a certain room that I could have stayed in for days. The walls and ceiling had gilded gold work everywhere and then there were three huge, gold chandeliers, those were out of this world! So I really wanted a photo of me by one of the Queens Guards and so I handed my camera off and walked towards the guard. A soon as I stopped about 4 feet away from him. He started to do this type of ceremony thing and I am not sure if it was because I was too close or what. All I know is that he scared the living daylight out of me!
We got back to London in time to stop at the local Mcdonalds and then we were off to Hyde park to watch Peter Pan. This play is inside this huge white dome and the inside of the dome has images projected on it. Most of their stage design is this image on the canvas. It made really cool special effects. The play itself was not my favorite out of all the ones I have seen while here, only because the style was a little different. I really liked it, but wouldn’t pay as much as I did to see it again. That got over at 10 pm and then we met some friends at Planet Hollywood for some grub. I had a salad and I think that I forgot how real vegetables taste like. I don’t get very many chances to eat vegetable while here. Anyway I have a early day tomorrow so I am going to get some rest!


I will get pics up soon of the last couple days, just haven't had a chance yet:)

London 07.29.09

I barely got back from The Phantom of the Opera Musical. I probably shouldn’t have went seeing how I have been to two musicals already but I got some pretty cheap tickets. It was amazing, their voices were unbelievable!! Sometimes I catch myself looking at the set design more than the actors. The way they display things and engineer the stage is incredible to me. Two times the Phantom just up and disappeared on us when on stage. The special effects made it feel like a magic show at times! It was at the Her Majesty Theater and was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. In order to save money I chose to purchase the obstructive view, so I was set behind a pillar but it was just fine! Earlier today we traveled by train to Stamford to visit the Burghley House. So this house was definitely my favorite one I have seen so far. The style was so much different, even though it was set in much different of a time period. A lot of movies have been filmed here and the Duke still lives in one of the wings with his family. The house decorated very nicely and had so much detail for the eye to see. Considering that it was not over the top like the other ones I have seen. One of my most favorite things about it were the beds. They had velvet and silk fabric draped all of them. The bed tended to get really high. They would have a mattress full of straw, another one of feathers, another one of cotton, and so forth. I can’t even imagine how comfortable that would have been. I guess the memory foam is the modern day version of it, it will have to do. The wood inlay and parquetry was great and all over the place. To see how the furniture and fashion design work together. The sofas are so deep but we learned it was to make room for the large dresses the women wear. Their gardens were beautiful but didn’t even compete with the gardens at Blenheim! Our tour guide was a lot of fun, you could definitely tell she loves the house. We stopped off at the café for scones and tea, which were spectacular! Right now I am watching Pride and Prejudice, looking at all of the house I have toured through this past week. It is a lot of fun to look back on.

London 07.28.09

We took the train to Oxford early this morning It was a very laid back day and was extremely nice. We went to Blenheim Palace first, this is where Winston Churchill was born. It is very big and is still used by the duke, who lives in one side of it. I enjoyed the interior, although it was very much like the other places I have seen here. My most favorite part of it was the gardens. They have 1000’s of acres of gardens and parklands. There is a secret garden, rose garden, Italy garden, and a couple others. They were very well kept and so beautiful to look at. The secret garden was great, there wasn’t a ton of color to it, but all of the greenery was so great to look at. The interior of the palace had a lot of Chippendale furniture and was a pretty style. The color palettes were not as busy in this palace, but it was very calming and fun to walk through. There was a Winston Churchill exhibit that I walked through, which at first I thought was very random. I didn’t realize how important he was to the family who lives at the palace. It seems like he did a lot of good in the world during his lifetime.
I actually did a little bit of homework on the train ride there and back, which was very needed!! I have sketches due in a week now and if I want them to look decent I need to start on them. We have been on the go so much and I haven’t had the energy to do them. That is probably a bad excuse but it’s the truth! Today I booked a seat at the Peter Pan Musical. It is in Hyde Park here and should be absolutely amazing. I also need to get my room booked for Scotland tonight, I really don’t know where the days go lately!

London 07.27.09

This last week was full of train rides and its going to be the same this week. We are taking day trips to the outskirts of London to see some neat things. We left at 6:45 am this morning, which is again too early for my taste, but once I am up and moving it is totally worth it. It was a 1 ½ train ride to Salisbury where we saw the Wilton House, and Salisbury Cathedral. I was in charge of researching the Wilton House and had to do a brief report about it to everyone when we arrived there. This house is where Earl of Pembroke lives and has been for over 400 years. It is used for high end community gatherings and is toured through daily. It has a Palladian and Country home style to it. If you have watched Pride and Prejudice then you will know which house it is. It is the house where Mr. Darcy is playing the piano, I was excited to see for that reason anyways! I may be kind of a nerd but I love Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility so it was fun to see. The Salisbury Cathedral was so fun to tour through. It has the tallest hollow steeple in the UK, at 404 feet tall!!! It looked tall but after climbing to the top of the steeple I really appreciated how tall it was!! We climbed spiral staircases to the top and were able to see the construction of it. It was built with only stone, unlike most other cathedrals. Our tour guide was funny and talked about the cathedral as if it were a lady. “It is so sleek and beautifully dressed,” he said!
After the cathedral we took taxis to Stonehenge. This is the first they have been able to take students to Stonehenge so we were extremely lucky. I honestly didn’t know a great amount about Stonehenge, but it was great to see in person. These stones were placed like they are today 5000 years ago!! That is crazy for me to even think about. It is barricaded off because tourists have damaged it by chipping pieces of rock of and carving into it. We were not able to touch but got some amazing picks of it!! When I am at these historical landmarks, I feel like I am looking at it as if it were a picture because they are so surreal. Its a lot of fun to go through the pictures when I get back to the flat and realize what I was able to see!!

London 07.26.09

I had the chance to go to church in Hyde Park here. It was a family ward and very close to my apartment flat It felt so nice to just sit there and listen to the speakers. I swear the majority of the people in the ward didn’t even speak with a British accent, and half the relief society was made up of tourists!! After staying up til 4am last night I had a hard time staying awake, but I made it through. I skipped the London Tower today so I could get caught up on a couple of things, and planned to meet my friends at the Lyceum Theater to see Lion King. The show lasted about 3 hours and it was great. The costume and set design was spectacular. I was amazed at the creativity and how thought out it was. We had a seminar with a set designer last semester and he mentioned that he has to see a number of Broadway shows for inspirations in his designs. I can see why now, there are so many different ways things can be displayed. The stage moved so many of times and had the most beautiful of colors. All of the animals were people in these extravagant costumes. Like the giraffes were people on their hands and feet on stilts with this huge neck. All of the African style fabrics and colors worked so well together and created a great ambiance for the theater. I was in awe when it was finished. We had gotten hungry by that time so we headed down the street to a little pub, but I wasn’t all that impressed with the food there. We wanted to go on the London Eye but of course it was rainy again so we decided to come back to the flat and work on some school stuff. The London Eye is like 17 pounds anyways so I am not sure if I am willing to pay that kind of money for it. My plans for Ireland and Denmark fell through, but I am 99% positive that I will be leaving for Scotland on Saturday. Mainly because I already have the train pass to get there and there is a lot more to see. Like castles, scenery and such. Including the one and only Hogwarts! Hey we may even see river dancers and men in kilts! We have so many day trips this week, which means we leave at the butt crack of dawn. So I hope I can get to bed early tonight. I am behind on my homework so I should be staying up late doing that! Ha probably won’t happen though, I am exhausted! My camera died today so I don't have any pictures from today:( so I will just post random pics today...

London 07.25.09

London 07.25.09
We started the day out with Notting Hill Flea Market on Portibello Road. We got a late start because we can’t get out of bed lately. I was blown away when I got there and saw how many shops were there and the number of people. It’s a good thing that I don’t have a problem with crowded areas, because we were surrounded by people the entire time. I got some awesome t-shirts and also some true touristy stuff. It probably went for around a mile, at least it felt like. We didn’t get to see all of it because we needed to head to the Victoria Palace Theatre to see Billy Elliott. I don’t think it is possible to explain to you how good that musical was. Billy Elliot won many awards at the last tony award show and is a newer musical. I absolutely loved it!! It had quite a bit of profanity but it went along with the culture in the play. The boy who played Billy was so talented and connected with the audience so well. It is about a boy who wants to audition for ballet school but the family is poor and doesn’t support him. It has plenty of humor in it, but is balanced out with some tender moments in it. I felt like a cry baby and that is so not like me. After the show we talked about the show for a good hour. I was suppose to go to the Shakespearean globe theater later tonight but wasn’t able to get tickets so I was a little upset. We replaced that idea with the peter pan musical in Hyde Park…well getting lost and one taxi later we missed the peter pan show by five minutes. Finally we decided to roam around Hyde park, which was beautiful and a great oasis from the city life. It was extremely relaxing and refreshing. Finding our way back to the apartment by walking was an adventure by itself. We got a little lost once again….we ended up making like ten circle around our neighborhood and found the apartment eventually. It was a very nice walk to be honest and now we know our area better!

London 07.24.09

Happy Pioneer Day!!
Our first free day in London was today. I took advantage of that and slept in and it felt fantastic! Once we got up and going we headed to Leicester square to attempt to purchase broadway tickets. I wanted to see Billy Elliot and The Lion King. It took us about two hours to finally find reasonable tickets for both shows. We are doing the matinee shows on Saturday and Sunday. I can’t wait, I love broadways. We then headed to The National Gallery, to see roam around another museum! I love museums but I swear there is something in the air at the museums that make me drowsy. Its like a yawning marathon for me! There were some great paintings and fun exhibits. My favorites were Van Gogh and Monet’s paintings. The impressionism paintings are what I like to study the most. It is fun to look at them abstractly and study them to see what the artist is trying to portray. After being artistically immersed in the museum we went to the Hard Rock Café. This is one of the oldest ones there are and it was very cool. I just love the fact that there are free refills at them because that is unheard of in Europe. Gotta love the Diet coke!! The meal was delicious and we were ready again to walk around the city. Harrods was our first stop, it is a very high end mall. We basically were too busy drooling over all of the things there to notice how long we had been there. There was a furniture section, and I could have spent all day there. Modern and Contemporary furniture was all over. I thought that I liked modern better than contemporary but their contemporary stuff was exquisite. The sofas were beautiful and so comfortable. It was nice to walk around the city and not feel rushed, very relaxing. We hit the local Tesco for some groceries, and now I am back at the apt. vegging.

Pattern Tate Modern Museum

I used a Picasso painting in the Tate Modern Museum to create this image. His eyes are always something that stand out to me in his patterns, and I wanted to incorporate that into my design. It ended up being very abstract but kind of fun.

Pattern V&A Museum

This pattern was inspired by a hanging fixture at the V&A Museums. I really liked the transparent boxes and the different colors they reflect. I abstracted it a little so it would not appear to be geometrical.

Pattern British Museum

This pattern was inspired by the posts of a balistrade in the British Museum. When finalized this will have many colors and would be replicated to be a much larger image. This museum had alot of classic interor characteristics. I took this classical balistrade and made it into a hip and modern design.

London 07.23.09

Cambridge University, fish and chips, Flea Market, pick picketers, punting, homework….fun day!! We took a train to Cambridge today and had a guided tour. We saw a lot of the colleges and many of the churches there in the main part of town. They have a late gothic style in a lot of their buildings, but it isn’t too overwhelming. It is beautiful and has a lot of character to it. The churches were a lot different, they had beautiful patterns on the wall and were painted in the prettiest colors. Many of the churches had a arts and craft style to them. In fact, I think William Morris himself designed one of them. Our tour guide was the cutest lady, she just lives for the history of that town and she made it even more interesting After the tour and the Fitzwilliams Museum we went for a little Punt Ride. It is down the main river there and it is sort of like a gondola ride. Minus the Italian men who sing to you. They use a 24 foot long pole and push off the bottom of the riverbed to move the boat and they tell you a little bit about the history. We passed by a couple places where harry potter was filmed and the rest of the interesting buildings were the great colleges. It was such a peaceful and calming city. There is the student life there and everything else besides that. People are also extremely nice. After shopping around for a bit we headed back to London by train. We tried to go see the premier of a new brad pitt movie but missed it sadly. So we just passed that and went straight to the apartment flat to work on our patterns that are due in the morning.