art galleries and covent garden

wassup wassup! here i am in my little bottom bunk cave! 
today was great!! finally we have a somewhat normal week schedule which means today was completely FREE. no plans!! yeeeeeehooooooo! you know what that means for me... shopping!!! hahahah no but really. i had to get some assignments done, so i did that first. no worries :). so i slept in a little, showered, did my hair for reals for the first time this whole freaking trip, then i was off! 
my first assignment i wanted to get done was for my english class at the national gallery. we had to observe transitions in subject and technique from the 1400s to the 1800s. it was pretty interesting I guess! that stuff is not really my cup of tea but the national gallery has a great collection. today i saw manet, monet, da vinci, michaelangelo, boticelli, and more! probably the most famous one was sunflowers by van gogh. yep i saw that in person today! it was super cool. moral of the story: go to the national gallery if you come to london! 
next i wanted to get my individual site assignment out of the way. for this we get to choose a museum or exhibit on our own then fill out a worksheet for it. exciting right? hahah no but really i was super stoked because ever since we went to the tate modern i have been dying to go back for the damien hirst exhibit so that's what i decided to do! but before i went i had to find me some lunch!! i was in the leicester square area which has a lot of touristy shopping stuff so i decided to just walk around and figured id find something. i love just wandering around! i found china town and little korea and it was just too fun! i also was right by the odeon in leicester square which is where they have all the red carpet premieres for movies and they were setting up for dark knight because it premieres here tomorrow! i was gonna go but we aren't gonna be back in time :( but it was so cool! i will try and post the pictures i took when my usb starts working. so finally just outside the tube station i found the most amazing bakery and cafe. it's called cafe valleria or something but it was so so good. i will be going back! i got a ham and brie sandwich and it was so yummy. also by accident i got this strawberries and cream frappe thing to drink. it was like a strawberry milkshake but it wasn't heavy and gross. it was so good!!! i took a picture but for some reason my computer isn't recognizing my iphone so i can't upload anything right now! i'm sorry guys! you'll just have to trust me! but yeah after that i was off to the tate!

the damien hirst exhibit was AMAZING. not gonna lie, had no idea who the guy was until i got here and saw the ads, but everyone should look him up. he is insane and weird but he is really the first artist who has had art stuff that kind of makes sense to me. i had to write a paper on it and why it is significant to me and i felt like one of those weird artsy kids who has inanimate things speak to them but it's true!! he does the coolest stuff!! to illustrate how wacky this guy is, one of his most famous pieces is a huge shark suspended in formaldehyde. it's scary! you think it's just gonna break out of the glass and eat you! but the title of the piece is 'the physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living'. kind of mind bending right? you probably all think i'm going completely nuts. but it was so cool. my favorite was a piece called in and out of love. so this is a two room thing. the first room is a bunch of dead butterflies he has made into pretty patterns like a lot of people do, then you walk into the next room and the all of the walls are covered in cocoons and butterflies are everywhere! there are flowers lining the walls and they just flutter around you.. it's the coolest thing! he often uses the theme of life and death and its just so cool because so many of his pieces really are or were alive. ah i love his stuff. so freaking cool. another must see in london. 
after that it was time to shop! i have only really been doing oxford and regent street and i really wanted to hit up my favorite, covent garden, so i was there all day long! i LOVE it. it has a lot more cute small boutiques and all that good stuff. I got some classic london pieces today! i got wellies, a raincoat, and some trousers! they are the first pair of pants that aren't skinny jeans that i have bought in a long time! i found some really great stores. one of them is called jack wills. it's kind of like abercrombie of england except its actually cute. look it up. i promise it's not like abercrombie in the bad ways. haha. maybe that was a bad comparison. the other place was this store called joy! but all the stuff i got was a brand called louche. it is so cute. its like vintage 50s looking dresses with lots of colorblocking and stuff i love. so i was just stoked on life. 

after i bought my wellies my arm was killing me cause those things are HEAVY! so i decided to head back to the centre. as i was walking to the tube station this scary african man started talking to me. unlike utah, people don't just come up to you and strike up a conversation. so this was red flag number one. he started asking me where i was from and if i worked and all this stuff. i was really short and wouldn't even look at him and kept walking faster to get away but he would not leave me alone! i was getting scared! he asked me where i lived and all these creepy things.. i was so glad i knew where i was going and that the tube stop was close because he was not leaving me. when i got to the entrance i said "okay time to go home now" and he was like no don't go i want to play with you and take you to coffee! i was so scared i just kept walking through the gate and he just kept yelling after me "so that's it? that's all?" yeah it doesn't sound that bad but i was really freaked out. that guy did not want to just get coffee. and he wasn't just some nice person that wanted to take you out or something. he was a scary guy. so yeah i was pretty rattled haha so much that i got on the wrong train. but oh well i just got off at the next stop and switched to the right line. so yeah that was my first bad experience here in london. but i lived! and i handled it just fine so i'm not too sketched out. might stay away from covent garden for a few days but i wont let it get to me too much! 

so i got back and went out to taza's (the shwarma place) for dinner. yummmmyyyyy. i will miss that place. then just hung out at the centre! almost everyone else had the harry potter studio tour today so everyone was talking about that. i am so so so excited to go now!!! i'm going on august 6 so get excited :) i did 2 worksheets, wrote a paper, and now i need to go to BED! i am pooped! like i said my phone isn't working with my computer at the moment so no pictures for today or yesterday :( i'm sorry! but by some divine act all my disneyland pictures uploaded! so i just need to write then i will be posting that! so probably this weekend that will go up! yay! tomorrow we are going to the home of shakespeare, stratford, so that will be the blog tomorrow! life is great! thanks for reading! 

i did not see a woman in black...

okay, contrary to my title, i did go see 'the woman in black' tonight and it was AMAZING. but that was the end of my day, and we should probably start from the beginning!
it's another monday here in london and can i just say i love the UK. i love this city. i am so glad to be back. it's obvious you guys are missing a big chunk from last week.. my disneyland paris post! i am working on it at the moment but obviously i have tons and tons of pictures (we took around 1,300) so it is taking quite a long time to upload it on to the internet. the wifi here is terrible! but i will post it when it is ready. hope you guys don't mind! but back to today. it's so nice to be back in the normal schedule. waking up, a good breakfast, class, people you know that actually speak english, a lovely clean tube, a friendly city.. ahhh. so nice :) so we had class! history then literature. then after that we had a lot of free time! so me and chelsea headed out to finally make our tea set purchases! :) we were so excited!
like i said a couple weeks ago i actually went to the same china shop where my mama got her china! so that was kind of sweet :) i got this adorable royal albert tea set. chelsea got the same one! so that's kind of a fun memory.
oh yeah! before that we went and got indian food. it was so good. i will miss being able to just get indian food everywhere i go.
okay so after the tea sets were purchased and shipped back to the states we headed down oxford and regent street again. there is this store called river island we really wanted to check out after some girls last week got some sweet stuff on our day trip to oxford. so we found one here in london! it's like another version of super cheap forever 21 stuff.. but they did have awesome team great britain stuff from the olympics so i got some of that! after that we were gonna go to this store dorothy perkins that my mom found online and wanted me to check out but instead we found this shoe store that was amazing.. i can't remember what it was called but they had awesome shoes for really good prices.. only problem is apparently british people have huge feet because they didn't carry my size! it was the saddest of the sad :( so no shoes for ali.
after that we seriously had to book it back to the centre because we were late for a lecture with one of the directors from the royal shakespeare company. we were all scared because we thought we would get in trouble for walking in, but turns out it was the way chill guy that looked straight out of america. he had big old beats and a giant water bottle and he was so funny. he gave an amazing lecture! partly because it didn't feel like a lecture. you could tell shakespeare is something he is so passionate about, and it helped us as students understand it too. one thing i thought was interesting is that his favorite play is actually romeo and juliet! he said he hates how so many people write it off because it's the ultimate cliche shakespeare play you study in elementary school... but ultimately it's an amazing gut wrenching story. and mostly he likes it because he thinks juliet is 'ballsy'. hahah. he was a funny guy and i loved listening to him!!
after that we had dinner, and then an evening to ourselves! we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do, but i didn't want to leave chelsea cause she is on dish crew this week. so we started looking for stuff that started at 8. guess what does? the woman in black! most people know it now because of the movie with daniel radcliffe (harry potter) that just came out, but it's actually been running on the west end since 1989. i was super scared because in all the reviews it said 'prepare to be scared out of your mind' and some of the kids who have already seen it said that the audience is screaming and stuff.. and i don't handle scary movies well or anything. so i was freaking out. but i knew if i didn't go i would regret it and it sounded like a really unique thing. so me lauren and chelsea were off to covent garden hoping we would get tickets!
i swear the gods are watching over us on this trip. so we get to the box office, just hoping to get good student rush tickets. student rush is when you stand in line right before the play starts and hope that you get the leftover seats for a super discounted price. so we go up and ask if there are 3 seats left, preferably together because we know we are gonna be scared and need to hold each others hands. hahaha. the ticket man was so nice. he had three seats together but he didn't want us to be up against the wall.. so what'd he do? he gave us our own private stall. yeah. we had our own box complete with a private bathroom and sitting room. it was amazing. the only thing we were worried about was the lady in black coming through our private door! oh and did i mention the tickets were only 25 pounds!!

sorry these are terrible pictures.. but just imagine us in that little box on the bottom, that's where we sat! 

so the play was AMAZING. yeah there were parts when i was pretty scared, but it was never that bad. all the screams came from jumpy parts, not sheer terror. it was so much fun!! it's crazy to me that throughout the entire play there were no set changes, no background music, and the whole thing was played out by two actors, yet this was the most engaged in a play i have ever been. it was incredible. i don't want to ruin the storyline so i won't go into that, but basically this is a MUST SEE if you are in london! seriously where else are you going to see a scary play? i didn't even know such things existed! go. do. it! ahhh. i loved it! oh i should probably explain the title... haha so when the haunting of the woman in black is passed to another person, they stop seeing the woman and always say "i did not see a woman in black!" so yeah! now ya know. 
so that was my day! now i am just back at the centre and i have to make some more missionary shout outs! this one is for my lax boys, harry and joey. i love you guys! i was just facetiming joey and he is so excited to get to london and he is gonna be great. i miss byu so much and i was so lucky to have made such amazing friends! i love that i was surrounded by such good boys that set such an awesome example to me by choosing to serve missions. good luck harry and joey! love you guys. 
i hope everyone else is doing wonderful! sorry i was lacking on the pictures today but there wasn't much to actually take pictures of. i love you all! (i will add pics after i try some more disneyland pics)

oxford

well hellloooooo friends! its around midnight here and i feel like my brain is gonna explode. 1) i leave for Disneyland Paris tomorrow and i'm gonna die i am so freaking excited but somewhat stressed out and 2) spending the day at oxford seriously made my brain hurt. WOW. i have never felt so insufficient in my life! that place is just overflowing with smartness. it was terrible but great at the same time.
so lets get started!! we left pretty early but our coach got stuck in insane traffic. like i said before, olympics are gonna be so freaking sketchy. oh well! so it took us a little over two hours to get there i would say. we got dropped off right in the middle of the 'city' of oxford and i have to say it is beautiful!! it reminds me a lot of bath with the style of architecture as well as the material, which is kind of like this whitish yellow stone. i probably sound really unintelligent explaining it like that but i seriously have no idea what these buildings are made out of. so our first stop was the ashmolean museum, which basically houses all of oxford's cool artifacts. now you have to realize that oxford is legitly like 900 years old. you know how most schools flaunt the year they were established and stuff? oxford can't even do that because it has been lost in the 'mists of time' as professor jacoby put it. that being said, this museum was freaking legit. if you have an extra day in london i would definitely suggest taking a day trip to oxford and going here. they have the coolest stuff! the first exhibit we walked into was a ton of greek and roman sculpture. they were in awesome shape! and it was a huge collection. that stuff is super cool to me because we learn about it so much ya know? it's cool to see it in person. the next exhibit was the ancient civilizations of nubia and egypt. they have so much stuff from egypt!!! oh my gosh it's insane! i think i saw something like 7 mummies? and one of them was the full on thing with like 4 sarcophagi (plural for sarcophagus, fancy i know :)) for a priest that was a really big deal. that stuff freaks me out but it is so fascinating! i spent most of my time in that exhibit. i wish we had more time because it was a decent sized museum and i definitely didn't see everything. after that i just kind of started wandering because i realized i was running out of time. i went and saw a musical instrument exhibit that had some stradivari violins.. that was insane. made me miss playing my sweet viola! (something i will talk about later :)). they had this one stradivari that's called the 'messiah'. it was made when he was in the peak of his career, yet it was never really played, only ever owned by collectors so it's in amazing condition. it was a beautiful violin! i also went through the china display and that was amazing. i have this new obsession with china (like china as in plates.. not china the country) ever since i've been here. so that was cool. the last floor we went on was full of art. it was great!! not the louvre or anything but i saw some monet, manet (they are two different artisits, get it right!!), degas, and pissarro! don't know if that means anything to anyone but basically it was an awesome museum and i LOVE oxford.

after the ashmolean which was really great, we headed over to oxfords library. holy. freaking. crap. i can't even imagine going to a library like this anywhere in the states, let alone on my university's campus! trying to picture this at byu was a trip! it's like an ancient cathedral looking thing! it was beyond insane.. this is where i really started to feel insignificant. they have all these collections from people who have studied there like charles dickens, CS lewis, lewis carroll (author of alice in wonderland) and more! i felt like i was walking in the footsteps of legends or something. (okay that was corny i'm sorry). but it was seriously so cool. they had a neat exhibit with really old illustrations for alice in wonderland so i liked looking at that. they also had a bunch of places where they filmed harry potter! the hospital wing is attached to the library and is really beautiful, and apparently the great hall for hogwarts was modeled after oxfords great hall. i didn't go see that stuff because you had to pay and i had other stuff i wanted to see. but it was cool to be around ya know?

after the library we had free time. a lot of people went off to shop or find harry potter spots.. but me, chelsea and taylor went to the history of science museum. in my opinion, this was a must see. it was so cool. they have tons and tons and tons of old astronomy tools, medical stuff, maps, compasses, microscopes.. it was insane. it was like an antique collectors paradise, except this stuff was actually significant. i can't even put into words how cool it was. it was so well preserved, they had an insane amount of everything, and mostly it was crazy how intricate and beautiful everything was! seriously i don't even know how to describe it so if you want to know more, google it or something!

 after that we headed over to the oxford shop! they have shops all over the place that carry oxford apparel but this one was the real deal. its like going to the byu bookstore instead of a walmart that has byu stuff. i got a real oxford sweatshirt! it's sweet! i'm taking it to disneyland :) then we just roamed the streets and chelsea got some ice cream. tesco carries ben and jerries and she got a whole tub of phish food. hahaha. but oxford has some sweet shops and i would definitely recommend it!!

this is weird to me- they have krispy kreme stores here and carry them in tesco! so they have this flavor which is a traditional english dessert.. it's so good!

sadly it was time to leave oxford! our next stop was just outside town, it was called blenheim palace. not a very english name right? it's not! it's actually named after a battle in germany. the duke that owned the place was the victor in that battle so they named it after him. it had so much history it was so cool!! the duke that got it is actually the great great great something grandfather of winston churchill! so he was born there in the late 1800s and they have a huge exhibit on him that we saw. i have to say i think i have a new favorite english person! winston churchill was a stud! not only was he a boss in world war 2, did you know he also won the nobel prize for literature? he also loved to paint and many people bought his christmas cards! he was a talented horseman and also turned down the dukedom so that he could run for the house of commons. cool right? it was sweet to learn about him.
other than churchill, the house is AMAZING. you can't take pictures inside, so you'll have to take my word for it. it's like a mini versailles, with tons of rococo baroque design. it's the most posh 'stately home' i have ever been in. it easily trumps the ones i've seen in england before this. only to be trumped by versailles itself. it made me appreciate my history of architecture and interior design class once again! to see the style and recognize it makes you appreciate it so much more. they had real chippendale chairs and all sorts of stuff. it was literally overflowing with priceless things. including stuff they actually were given from versailles. so yeah i'm sure you're getting my point here. it's mini versailles in england and it's beautiful. and freaking huge. also, like the other really nice houses we have visited here, there is a wing that is closed from the public because the spencer-churchill family still lives there. is that crazy or what?! also.. the spencer part of the name is indeed the same spencer that princess diana came from! fun fact right? so yes winston churchill and princess di are distantly related.

after walking around the gardens for about 45 minutes it was time to get back on the coach for london! i  was out cold on the way home, i was so dang tired. instead of being dropped off at the centre, we were dropped off in the middle of town to go to a concert at temple church. this was a cool opportunity because typically it's not open to the public. it's part of the church of the knights of templar, which are really secretive. i think they are similar to the freemasons if that helps you guys to understand. i can't really remember their history but i'm pretty sure it's one of those groups in the da vinci code or something. the concert was awesome. so much better than the symphony at st. pauls. hahaha. they played three different pieces and it was altogether about 2 hours long. but this time instead of a full orchestra it was a quintet! two violins, a cello, viola, and a bass clarinet. it was so pretty. i love quartets and trios and quintets or whatever because i can actually relate to it. it reminds me of my quartet days! it made me miss it so much! i might have to whip out my viola when i come home. never thought i'd hear myself say that! oh i forgot! for dinner we had to go find stuff on our own and we found MEXICAN! it was definitely not super authentic but everyone was saying it was exactly like chipotle. i have never been so i wouldn't know but it was pretty freaking tasty so i was a happy camper. yayayayayay mexican food!

after the concert we came home and now everyone is up packing. I can't believe i'm going to DISNEYLAND tomorrow! ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am gonna get like three hours of sleep tonight but get ready for the best blog post ever tomorrow! hopefully i have internet! i love you all so much and hope everything is going good!

special edition 50 pents coin for the olympics!

hampton court

hi guys! wow what a day today has been emotionally! hahaha. honestly not that exciting activity wise but i have been super happy and super sad today! but luckily this is the first time i have actually been sad on this trip and i know it's only temporary so no worries everyone!
so even though tuesday is usually our completely free day, we have a travel weekend this week so we had class today. yeahoo! like i always say class really isn't bad. also everyone was excited because we had waffles today at breakfast! i had a bite or two of one.. and the syrup was super gross so yeah didn't feel like i was missing out there.
after class i always go check the mail... and guess what?! i got three different things today! i was STOKED! seriously i came like screaming into the servery with my little bundle and i think people seriously wanted to punch me in the face. hahah no but seriously i was being so annoying and now i feel bad. i got a package from my mom that has my us womens soccer jersey in it, thanks mom!

diane i got your package! THANK YOU! i loved it and everyone was so jealous!! hahaha but i will be sure to share my candy with them :) I sent you a postcard last week and today as well so let me know somehow when you get it! :) also i got a letter from ty!! so that just made my day! so that was my high point of the day. like i said people wanted to punch me but oh well! hahah.

after that i went out to find lunch. i went to this cute bakery we always walk by on our way to our tube stop. it was okay... not all paninis are created equal! but thats okay :) funny story of the day: after lunch i went into this convenience store to get a postcard or something and this arabic guy was running the cash register. i handed him my debit card to pay for my stuff and he freaked out when he saw my name was 'Ali Noorda'. like seriously i think he said my name to me at least ten times. hahaha after he finally got over the fact that that was really my name he asked me if i was muslim. i was so close to saying uh... do i look muslim? hahah no but i controlled myself and politely said no. then he asked what my name meant and i told him how it was Dutch and stuff. then he told me how it means something cool in Arabic but honestly i have no idea what he said. but anyways the story sounds lame now but he seriously kept me in the store for like ten minutes just repeating my name over and over hahaha it was kinda funny but i was a little creeped out. yay for having a muslim sounding name!
so after lunch we got on the tube and then a train to head out to hampton court palace! again talk about memory lane after being there with my mom and sister a few years ago! they still have those funny velvet robes you can dress up in! so i wore that around the whole time and looked like an idiot hahaha. oh well! who cares right? we wandered around for a pretty long time, the place is freaking huge. they have exhibits for william, edward, mary (don't even ask what numbers... i am so lost in the british monarchy right now) and of course henry viii. he was the one with all the wives. 6 to be exact! and i guess he spent most of his time at hampton court so they did a really good job telling the story. i don't know what the english' deal is with henry viii, but i personally think the guy is a pig. marrying 6 different women and beheading them when they couldn't give him a son... but they all talk about it like he was doing it for the good of the country. english people are psycho! hahaha anyways. i am so out of it right now you guys i am sorry. please don't judge me.

hotties in midevil robes

mom and amanda- this is the place where we part of the fake wedding hahaha

gardens! and yes my glasses are prescription.

okay so after a few hours there we hopped back on the train to get back into town and back to the center for dinner. it was chicken and mashed potatoes and weird veggie mix. it was.. interesting? oh well i was so dang hungry i didn't even care. we are moving around so much here i am always hungry. after dinner i called cole to say goodbye :( it was the saddest of the sad. this was my low point of the day. we talked for like twenty minutes until he had to go.. he is gonna be a great missionary! i love you cole!

memories with this kid! 

talking to colbie for the last time :(  

this post is gonna be pretty short because i am writing most of this a day late and i seriously can't remember what happened yesterday and what happened today so i am very sorry (sorry mom!!). after dinner we had some free time so i wrote some postcards and did a whole lot of nothing. then at 10:30 we had our first film as part of our 'film series'. for our history class we have to watch 3 films then write papers on them. so we watched henry v last night. it was so funny all of us were trying so dang hard not to fall asleep. we got pretty creative! i was on the floor, then would move to a chair, then back again so i wouldn't doze off. i don't know why i just told yall that. oh well!

so thats the day! i'm sorry i don't have more detail! hope everyone is doing good :)