Seats of Power Walk

Melissa, Andy, and I went on this walk along the Thames and the district that houses England’s political power – Houses of Parliament, Cabinet War Rooms, et cetera. We walked along the Thames looking at every single statue in the Victoria Embankment Garden and I was impressed with the range of national heroes that they displayed.

The statues displayed the variety of English pride with war heroes, religious figures, social activists, and even a shout out to Psychology with John Stuart Mills! We continued on through the area and found many statues commemorating the women of WWII, cavalry, parachuters, and many other groups of people. I think it is a little scary to have all that power concentrated in one area – I am surprised that it was all not destroyed during the Blitz.

Truth Will Prevail

On Thursday we visited Preston where the first LDS missionaries came to Preston immediately upon arriving in England and as they arrived they found it was Election Day. One of the political mottos was “Truth will Prevail” which then became the motto of the First Mission and I think an appropriate motto for my own life.

There were several lessons I took away from the day and one of them was a personal anecdote shared by our tour guide Peter Fag. He told us that he had an opportunity to see Gordon B. Hinckley in the Market Square where not only did the early missionaries begin their preaching but Gordon B. Hinckley also “cut his teeth on public speaking”. Peter told us that Gordon B. Hinckley admitted to him that he was terrified of that initial speech.

Plaque in a Park Commemorating Latter-day Saints

We initiated the tour by going to a museum and learning about the history of Preston (a largely industrial city). “Britain’s bread hangs upon Lancaster’s thread”. I also found it fascinating that the city of Preston’s symbol is the lamb of God with the sword of truth and a banner. The “PP” on the city crest stands for the prince of peace. How fitting.

I loved learning about the saints of Preston and how there was a member (who later became Joseph Smith’s Hebrew tutor) who had a dream of a golden book and angel and was consequently converted when the missionaries came to preach. Strong parallels to Newel K. Whitney’s dream of Joseph Smith in Kirtland.

Preston Temple

Other notes that interested me was that Karl Marx predicted that Preston would be England’s St. Petersburg and would overthrow the English government and led the UK to communism. Also that Preston was the city that Dicken’s based “Hard Times” upon. We walked by Edith Rigby the suffragette’s house and learned a bit of her colorful history – right on!

This post is drawing on but some other interesting Preston thoughts: there were about 7-9,000 spectators to the first baptism and they nicknamed Mormons “the dippers” due to full immersion.

Site of the First Baptism

Liverpool

We began with the statue given by the church to commemorate the nine million who emigrated to America from the Liverpool docks. I liked the crab who represents the deep connection to the sea and the fact that the child was touching the Dad representing the new emigrations hanging on to their traditions of the old world. Off topic but there was a statue Billy Fury who everyone mistook for Elvis.

Billy Fury

Emigrating Family

We spoke of the emigration and same students shared individual stories of relatives that converted in the British Isles and then emigrated. It reminds me of my ancestors that I am named for who came over on the Mayflower. We finished by singing “Come, Come Ye Saints” and enjoying the strong spirit.



Next I went to the Maritime Museum and I was inspired by the Joseph Conrad quote, “As long as men will travel on water, the sea gods will take their toll”. I walked through the Titanic exhibit, a naval exhibit (in which I was incensed that there was this hardcore propaganda poser that showed a little boy of about four years old standing attention to the sea captain of a large ship in uniform who is likewise in attention and the slogan was “Run Away to Sea”), and a slavery exhibit. It was quite moving when in the Titanic exhibit they played “Nearer My God to Thee”.


In the slavery exhibit I found it quite ironic that they quoted Woodrow Wilson saying that liberty requires resistance. It is ironic considering that they took this quote out of context and Woodrow Wilson was pro-Ku Klux Klan and quite racist. Other than that one offensive quote I loved Nelson Mandela’s quote: “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others” and Frederick Douglass’ quote: “No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck”. Man the power of a great orator. I was so proud when they cited Boston for having a statue of Harriet Tubman. I ended the exhibit by listening to Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” – yeah buddy!

Ribble Valley

After Preston we visited Ribchester and Downham two quaint villages in the Ribble Valley the latter under Pendle Hill of significance I will explain later.

Heber C. Kimball had a dream about an old barren field and cows trampling upon the new seed in the grass land. The interpretation of this dream was that the Minister of the village of Ribchester was leading the young saints astray and consequently Heber C. Kimball went back to Ribchester and repaired the damage.

The village of Downham was said to be a godless place and yet the early missionaries felt prompted to go there and had great success. An interesting fact is that the town decided that they would have no visible modern technology thus all their telephone wiring and other displays of modern technology are all underground. Another special feature of the town is that they won “loo of the year” for their unique design of converting old sheep stalls into male toilets.

The village is in the shadow of Pendle Hill which has religious significance to the Quakers, Methodists, and Latter-day Saints. The founder of the Quaker religion had a vision on top of Pendle Hill that directed him to like-minded people and they founded the Society of Friends. Similarly the Methodists and the Latter-day Saints has religious communes with Heavenly Father atop of Pendle Hill.

Fountains Abbey

As the wealthiest Abbey in all of England it was only too inevitable that Fountains Abbey should be seized and later fallen to disrepair. On Tuesday we visited the tragically poetic overgrown Fountains Abbey that could not even help but inspire.

The Abbey was started in response to an unfavorable Bishop of York and consequently after sometime the people of York came and burned the exile's Abbey down. We have now seen Canterbury and York Cathedrals and yet there is something about seeing the ruined state without any art to distract you which allows you to have a better sense of the sheer massive nature of an abbey or cathedral.

While others took out their sketch books and captured the beauty in that medium I tried to improve my photography skills as I roamed the green grassy knolls (a theme of our Lake District trip). There was this bridge (shown below) built with Roman vaulted architecture completely overgrown around it passing over a stream with various types of plants growing. Unfortunately these are not the best representations of my photography skills so do not please do not judge.

Greatness at the Globe

I am writing this post while still under the influence of euphoria due to the greatness I like to call As You Like It. After reading As You Like It (from this point on affectionately referred to as "AYLI") I quickly decided that it was my favorite Shakespeare play that I have ever read - and I have read about seven. Kenneth Branaugh's Much Ado About Nothing is still my favorite film adaptation but AYLI was my favorite play.

So back to my indescrible feelings. After seeing the play at the Globe I have now decided that AYLI is definitely my favorite Shakespeare play seen on the stage. The first half of the play I was sitting in basically the nosebleed section. There was a pole in the way and I had to constantly shift my seat to attempt to see the characters.

Then...in the second half I became a groundling and stood down on the stage and whew that is the only way to see a play in the Globe Theatre is to embrace the groundling status. The second half of the play was simply AMAZING! As I could actually see the character's faces I felt so drawn into the action and every comedic element was magnified by the use of physicality. I cannot even attempt to convey the feelings that AYLI invoked in me.

The fool character, Touchstone was hilarious and the melancholy Jacques simply delightful. The music in the end was a modern jazzy feel and the characters all danced their way through curtain call. I am going to go see it again for sure, especially because I can get groundling tickets for 5 pounds. After the play we danced over the Millenium Bridge with the light up St. Paul's in the background. Not a bad life, eh? Below is my pesky pole that obstructed my view.

The truest testament to our Study Abroad being entirely composed of females is the discussion in our dormitories after the play where every single female mooned over Orlando. As I was leaving the theatre I totally saw Daniel Radcliffe!

Well at least I thought I did until I looked closer and it was a 50 year old man.

Southall, a borough of London

We had a day trip to Southall, an Indian borough of London. First we went to the Sikh temple - awesome! We covered our heads, took off our shoes and then headed off to pay our respects to their holy book. We sat there and I contemplated the DOZENS of questions that was coming to mind. As we were leaving the hall that held the Holy Book an old Indian woman dropped a hand full of this mushy mixture in my hand. I tried it and it was quite delicious (flour, butter, sugar, water mixture). From there we went to the mess hall were we were given a free meal - everyone is given food regardless of religious affiliation, what an amazing service. Melissa and I attempted to strike up conversation with the sikhs that we were sitting next to but unfortunately they did not speak English. Since we were done with our food first we decided to volunteer to wash dishes. They excited look on the old Indian women was worth it all. We were given a lot of non-verbal instructions as to the method that the dishes were to be washed but the translation was not complete and a few times we were corrected. As we did the dishes we discovered that this free meal was open to the public three meals a day seven days a week and these women that did the dishes volunteered at the temple every single day, day in and day out! After dishes we went to a Question and Answer session with a Sikh who answered all my questions. I was surprised to learn how similar the Sikh religion is with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Just goes to show you that you could find truth in all places.

Next we went to a small Hindu temple and paid our respects to the second most prominent religion of Southall. It was interesting to see the multiple gods in the different representations. Despite the Hindu temple being a smaller and more intimate setting I felt more comfortable in the Sikh temple - I do not know if it was the welcoming attitude of the members or the religious similarities. I wish that I could remember more about what I studied concerning the Hindu faith back in the beginning of High School and in Middle School but it was just out of my memory. As we were leaving I took some sugar water from the priest and was given a pomegranate.

After the Hindu temple we walked around and enjoyed seeing the town. I was struck on how similar the smells and sights were to the Palestinian side of the Old City of Jerusalem. As we walked around we decided to get henna and in the salon we were able to talk to some of the townspeople. Everyone was super friendly and it was interesting to note some of the differences between the older and younger generations. You could definitely see the modern European influence on the younger generations.

After walking away and making our way to the larger Hindu temple in the town we went to an Indian restaurant and given a sample of many dishes. Oh man how I love Indian food. I wish that I could have just ordered my usual favourite dishes but still I loved the naan and masala dishes. Yummy day full of rich, interesting experiences - definitely a lot to reflect on.

"The Triumph of Death"

Today we went to Dover and Canterbury and while the white cliffs were inspiring, the castle beautifully historic, and Canterbury Cathedral tragically refurbished the message I took away was from the tomb of an archbishop. Archbishop Henry Chichele while living built a tomb with a top layer of his body in all his regalia and then below there is a sculpture of his dead rotting body. The message is that you cannot take any of the power and prestige that you can with you on during your lifetime.

There is an equality in death which Pieter Bruegel the Elder (a Northern Renaissance artist) touched upon in his painting 'The Triumph of Death" which illustration draws Monty Python's comedic rendition of the Black Plague - complete with knights calling "bring out your dead, bring out your dead". In Bruegel's painting even the King dies in the left corner, death spares no one. I was reminded of this message twice today and I keep reflecting on that idea. Not the pessimistic concept that we will all die and nothing we can do to change that but the idea that we should focus on the important things that we can take with us. How we nurture our lives and our actions are the things that really matter.

Nerdiness in London

Many things make me nerdy but these are the few that have come to me recently:

• Making humanities venn diagrams from my reading – humanists v. reformers


• Absolutely loving “As You Like It” and staying up late to finish the play before all my other homework was done


• Seeing a sculpture where Truth pulls out the forked tongue of Falsehood then seeing Valour crushing Cowardice – I just love those strong female heroines





• Getting ridiculously excited over the textiles of Ancient Egypt that depict the tree of life (it plays to my love of different cultural representations of the tree of life as well as my love of finding Gospel truths in other cultures)


• My goal of learning cockney and using it in everyday conversations


• Seeing the scars of the blitz on the Victoria Albert Museum and wondering what more can humanity do to itself?

PS In the V&A Museum we discussed Democrotus' bust that is always depicted as a happy, jolly fellow and the contrast to Heroclitus' bust that is always depicted as melancholy as he believed humans were in a dismal state. That brought me to wonder what my bust would be depicted as? Hopefully happy, perhaps just my face stuffed with food...

Getting the Lay of the Land

Yesterday we were given instructions to visit the British Museum and National Gallery as an assignment with multiple purposes in my mind: get out explore London, get acquainted with the free museums, and begin thinking of art academically. Anyway we set off and as we got off Tottenham Court tube stop I turned around to look at something and whoosh my group was gone faster than you could apparate.

All Harry Potter jokes aside there I was mapless, friendless, and slightly clueless where the British Museum was. Puffing up my chest and assuming that I, a Bostonian, could figure out the BIG city of London (there lay my problem - thinking like an American and not appreciating the complexity of the city's layout because it is OLD) I picked a direction and began to wander. Well once I realized that it was the wrong direction I began wandering in the other direction for about 2 miles -- later I traced my route on the map on London and I had walked off the map.

While I was wandering I discovered how modern London was. I did not really have an appreciation for the thriving businesses that are centered here. Also I came to realize that out of the five people I polled only one knew where the British Museum was and gave shoty directions at that. Also I would see large amounts of trees and some large pieces of modern art in the distances so mistakingly like a camel searching for water would go towards them. No luck. Surprisingly there are some beautiful neighborhoods with small parks in front complete with modern art.

I hope I am not rambling like your Aunt Sally. I eventually made it to the National Gallery (not at all where I intended to be) and was able to witness some pretty interesting street performers: a man dressed in all green dancing on a pillar, boys going au naturel but for their signs favoring censorship, et cetera. Luckily I found my group among the rooms and later we wandered London together. We explored the government areas and then today we explored "The City" the financial areas. All in all I think I am getting to know the lay of the land, now all I have to do is tackle the customs.