London Walk #1: Regents Park Walk

Over the course of the term, we are assigned to complete 10 walks in London. We have a book that details the sights we will see and shows a map of the route we should take. Our assignment is to create a short blog post about our experience. So, anytime my post is titled London Walks # (some number), it is an assignment. I considered creating a separate blog for this, but I figured I might as well just share it here.

Today, after a beautiful walk along the canals and Little Venice, and a wonderful lunch at Camden Market, we took a stroll through Regents Park.

Regents Park was first declared as Royal hunting grounds by Henry VIII. It is now a huge grass area with cafes, ponds with paddle boating, areas for sporting games, fancy villas, and gorgeous gardens.

I was amazed by the incredible greenery and pink and white blossoms on many of the trees. My favorite was seeing the Mermaid fountain at Queen Mary’s Gardens. It was beautiful and it reminded me of my mother who absolutely loves mermaids. My mom would have wanted to find a miniature version in a souvenir shop to take home…even though she hates souvenir shops!

It was a beautiful day today. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze. There were families having picnics and groups of boys playing football. There was a family playing kickball and lots of people walking their dogs. I thoroughly enjoyed this walk through the park today. (Even though my feet were hurting pretty badly after a very long walk to the canal, along the canal, and to Camden markets and back.) But I felt so lucky to be there, I could have kept going all day! I was having a great time enjoying the gorgeous, sunny London day.

This one’s for you, Mom!

Jessica, Kristen, Emily, Me, Taylor, and Andrea

These mermaids have bums!

Stay tuned. The rest of today's adventures will be posted tomorrow. (Internet is too slow to do it now.)

The Royal Wedding and Me

London Day 3…THE BEST SO FAR

I cannot believe my luck in being able to be in London today. April 29, 2011, the day of the Royal Wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton. For months I have been looking forward to this day. I have also been nervous about being able to see it all. There are at least an extra million people in London today for the event. I knew it would be chaotic. But somehow, I managed to see it all. The whole time, I kept thinking, Pia will be so happy! She will be so proud! (Pia is a great family friend in Utah who drilled it into my head that if I did not attend the wedding, she would probably kill meJ. Love you, Pia, aren’t you proud?!)

We arrived at Buckingham Palace at 6 a.m. People had been camping out for days before then. But we got lucky. We dismissed the idea that we would be able to see the balcony kiss, but at least we knew we would see the procession. So we staked out a spot about three rows of people behind the barrier. Not bad, eh?

Me, Kristen, Taylor, and Andrea

We waited and waited. We were standing for about 7 hours plus probably another 1.5 hours of walking around. My feet are thanking me for sitting down right now. ( in this picture we are sitting. we sat for about 5 minutes. too dirty and cramped to sit.)

There were two snobby blonde British ladies in front of us. When the crowd started increasing, we were forced to move forward. Well this lady was sitting in a camping chair. I accidently bumped lightly into her, and she turned around and said something rude to me. Oh well. A few minutes later, she gave me a chocolate bar and said, “I’m feeling friendlier. Have a chocolate. I was horrible before, I’m sorry!” Hmmm. That was awkward, but nice and I was starving. It was oats and ginger pieces covered in dark chocolate and I’m pretty sure my mom would LOVE it, so I’ll have to find some and bring them home. Then when the wedding procession neared and the crowd began pushing forward, of course I was forced to accidently put a little crowd pressure on this lady, who had the most space around her of anyone. She had a chair and bags surrounding her, so she shouldn’t have complained, but she turned around and said, “I swear if you push into me one more time…” (Picture a snobby British accent from a lady in her 40s.) “I am sorry, I wasn’t pushing you, though. The crowd is all pushing forward.” “You’re, joking! If someone pushes you, push back!” What a wannabe killjoy! I say wannabe because she didn’t really kill my joy. I was in heaven. I was witnessing an ordinary woman become a princess. I was watching the Royal family pass by me, just a few yards away. It was incredible! What a horrid lady. Oh well, at least I discovered my first favorite British snack by accidently (and as we were in a large and excited crowd, by default) bothering the bitter woman!

Sydney, Me, and Tara (and the bitter lady's friend behind Tara! (blonde))

So here is how the day went (after the waiting around forever):

Lots of guards going by

At least 3 royal marching bands

Lots of nice cars. Mostly Rolls-Royces, BMW’s, Land Rovers, and (my dream car) Range Rovers.

The first car to leave was the one carrying Prince William. I caught a glimpse of his smile and his shiny gold shoulder pads!

Then a lot of other high status people were driven by. They waved at us. The women were all wearing funny proper British hats. The hats were really fun to see. They were wild! I really don’t understand the hat thing. I think they look hilarious on these poor women who are just trying to look high society! Maybe I am ignorant. But I didn’t see a single hat that I wished was on my head. We saw the French ambassador. That is the only one that people around seemed to recognize. Oh also, there was a news reporter woman that everyone around us got really excited about. “There’s Gabby Logan, the Scottish reporter!” they all cried.

AND THEN, I SAW THE QUEEN. Queen Victoria. She and her husband, the Duke of Edinburough were driven past us in a maroon Rolls-Royce. She was cute as can be in her yellow ensemble (overcoat and matching hat). I was awestruck when I saw her. I was jittery after seeing the Prince, and just plain awestruck with the Queen. I mean really, it’s Queen Elizabeth II. Incredible!

(Yes, this is the Queen and her husband.)

And then there was a long pause. The crowd started to chant, “We want Kate! We want Kate!” And Kate we got. We were able to get a glimpse of the top of her dress and see that it was along sleeve lace v-neck. The actual ceremony was broadcasted on speakers, so we got to listen to the entire thing. What a sweet ceremony. What a cute and so obviously in love couple. Everyone cheered several times throughout the ceremony. When they were finally pronounced man and wife, came the loudest cheer.

Now comes the most exciting part: The procession back to Buckingham Palace.

It started with a bunch of gold armored men on black horses, followed by the happy Royal Couple in their beautiful red carriage. Kate and William were stunning. She is such a beautiful woman. And here choice in wedding gown was very tasteful, glamorous, gorgeous, and so princess like. It also fit her style very well. I loved it. The next carriage had the cute little bridesmaids, pageboys, and the maid of honor, Phillipa. Then came the Queen and the Duke again! I love the Queen! And they were followed by Prince Charles, Camilla, and Mr. and Mrs. Middleton. Oh what a day! We got to see the entire Royal family! AND a royal marching band. (I love marching bands. I have been made fun of multiple times for loving marching bands), and the craziness of British people loyal to their royals! (last night, we felt like we were at the Harry Potter World Cup! These people really get into it!)

Phillipa and the bridesmaids and page boys

The Queen and her husband again

The Middletons, Charles and Camilla. Camilla is the lady you can see with the big hat.

We knew we wouldn’t be able to get to a spot where the balcony was visible, so we started to head out.

It took forever with all the people going through narrow walkways to leave the palace. But then, we noticed that, wait….there was plenty of space to see the balcony. So we sprinted toward the Victoria memorial, and we got a spot about halfway between the gate and the memorial. We got a great view of the Royal family waving to its subjects on the balcony. The couple kissed twice. And I felt complete. I had seen everything I wanted to see. I knew that I could come back to Pia’s house with my head help up high. “I did it, Pia. I braved the crowds and I saw Will and Kate kiss on the balcony!” She tells me that someday, when William is King, I want to be able to tell my children that I saw him kiss his queen on the balcony. Haha I am so glad to be able to say that. Thanks for the push, Pia! I would have felt extremely guilty if I had not been able to see all this, and I am so glad I did! I still feel the rush from all the excitement, all the once-in-a-life time events. Today was incredible! I feel like I am part of a major historical event! And it was kind of funny…when the guards in the red and the black furry hats were doing their thing, I felt a little bit of British pride. I thought, this is my country. This is where I am from. My grandpa was born here. Ok I am an American through and through, but hey, can’t I feel a little pride from where I came from?

Today was amazing. I can’t wait to watch the ceremony on TV later. What an amazing day!

The Royal Family: Mr. Middleton, Mrs. Middleton, Charles, Camilla, bridesmaids, Kate, William, bridesmaid and page boys, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburough, Phillipa, Prince Harry, and...shoot I can't tell who that is on the end.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the Buckingham Palace Balcony (Kate and Will!!)

Crazy Fan (it was very cold.)

Some more fun fans.

Buckingham Palace Grounds..beautiful, right?

London Day 2

I tried uploading pictures, but the internet here is very glitchy and it will not work. I will have to go to McDonald's, the popular wifi hotspot around here, later to put them up. So I apologize for the wordy post, but there are no pictures to show you, so I had to use my words!

Day 2 in London began with breakfast..greek yogurt with fruit. Then, Andrea, Kristen, and I decided to go jogging in Hyde Park. It was beautiful, but a bit chilly. Eating Greek yogurt right before going running is the worst idea ever. Half way through our run, I threw up. I really did. It was nasty and embarrassing! No one really saw and it was a small amount, but ugh, hopefully next run goes better, although everyone knows I’m not the worlds’ best runner. In fact, I am pretty terrible at it!

I started two classes today. History and Art History. Both were interesting, but I kept nodding off in both. I was exhausted all day! We took a quickie trip to Buckingham Palace, via the Tube. By the way, I got my Oyster card (30-day Tube Pass) today and they have special edition William and Kate cards! Awesome! We had to be quick to make it back for dinner and daily announcements. I loved the Palace. The lion’s on the gate are my favorite. I was just about to step away from peering through the gate, watching those red guards in their funny furry hats, when the little black lady next to me started going, “Oooooh, Oooh, YES!” I decided I better stay and see what she was getting so excited about. “They’re going to change guards, yay!” she said. It was fun to watch as four other guards marched over to the main guards, shuffled their feet into position and go through the whole changing guards process. Is that rare to see? I wondered why the lady was getting so excited, but it was an interesting process.

Dinner was frozen pizza. Yay. Not. The wife of the resident director is out of town for a week, so until she gets back, we’ll be getting hot dogs, hamburgers, and pizza. YuckL

Today we got to meet the Bishop of one of the wards in London. He is only 28! He is married to an American from Minnesota and they have two adorable little girls. He was hilarious. He warned us all about the white van drivers who make a point to try and run over pedestrians and then curse at you for getting in their way. He warned us that when introducing ourselves to Londoners, you should NEVER tell them your name right away. It would offend them. Talk about meaningless stuff first, like the weather, then at the end of the conversation, pretend like they told you your name already and say, “Oh I didn’t catch your name, I’m so and so.” And when buying something such as a ticket to the show, pause before you buy. Let the ticket seller acknowledge you are there before you speak. Otherwise, they will assume that you think they are only there to serve you and they may be rude to you. (Which…aren’t they? Aren’t they getting paid to sell me a ticket?) Bad customer service here apparently.

Anyway, I am in the Kennington ward. I am very excited to meet all the people at church. At some point I will have to speak at church! AHH! Scary! They will all make fun of my California accent! (like Ben already does!!)

After meeting the Bishop and Stake President, four of us decided to check out Buckingham Palace. It was crazy. Every where possible was a tent and lawn chairs and lots of excited gung-ho Kate and William fans. There were signs. There were flags. There were London flag patterned clown wigs. There were drunkards singing songs together, such as Summertime from Grease, and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. We talked to some Americans who were camped out with a pretty good view of the balcony. Too bad they didn’t invite us to stay with them ha ha. We walked by some drunky boys who yelled at us, “Hello ladies! We are princes!” We bought stupid little souvenir flags from a lady with a shirt that had a flashing light up picture of William and Kate on it! It was a very wild atmosphere. After scoping things out, we decided the best thing to do is to get on the Tube at 5:30 am tomorrow to get a spot. We are determined to catch a glimpse of that beautiful girl in her incredible gown with her Royal husband in her elaborate carriage. We would love to see them kiss on the balcony. I don’t know how possible that is though. Tomorrow will be insane! I can’t wait. Wish me luck with waking up early! (Why am I still up at 12:30 am?? GAH! It will be so hard to wake up. Cheers to the Royal Wedding!

Fresh hair cut and ready to go!

I am in Summerland tonight with my family. And tomorrow I leave for London, England! I spent a wonderful Easter with my family yesterday and today I basked in the beautiful sunshine of Carpinteria all day long. This morning, my two older sisters, my mom, my two nephews and I went on a lovely walk on the Bluffs in Carpinteria that look over that incredible bright blue ocean that I think about everyday when I am away at school in Utah. Then, I rushed to Santa Barbara to get my hair trimmed. Now I feel fresh and ready for those classy Europeans! (Oh and I have to look my best for the Royal Wedding....yes, I will be there for the Royal Wedding. ooh, ah. I just can't wait to see Kate and her giant poufy bajillion dollar dress parading around London in the Royal Carriage with her hottie (oh wait, not so hot, just royal) new hubby.) Then, I picked up an adorable over-the-body purse at Nordstrom (a must have from what I hear from previous study abroad girls). I am very pleased with my find. Then, my mom, little sis (Mak) and I took the baby boys to the beach. It was quite lovely. I can't believe my luck with the weather today. Absolutely gorgeous.

Another reason today has been great: I've been snacking on Easter candy all day. My dad went all out this year. See's candy galore. YUM. Although its probably not the best idea to be shoving so much chocolate down my throat right before I do the same thing in Europe. Where the chocolate is 100 times better. CANNOT WAIT. YUM! (We Pike girls are fanatically addicted to chocolate. All of us. Dark Chocolate. Except, today I learned Mak isn't so fond of that dark heavenly wonder. She prefers milk. Weirdo.)

Here are some pictures from easter.

This is my favorite. Trevor took this picture himself. Cute smile, buddy.

The Easter egg hunt kids.

Me and Mak.

The Family and Trevor being a stinker and hiding behind his rocket ship.

Uncle Robbie helping Mason get an easter egg. Aw...

......LONDON.....get ready for me!