Today was a great day for many reasons. During the night it rained and so it cooled off. so nice! during the night i actually got cold and pulled my comforter up which felt so weird doing since i hadnt done that lately. Walking to class i almost needed a jacket. It was kinda funny to be wanting to jacket and then to think back to yesterday where i almost melted. And then class was really great today too. We had a guest lecturer come teach us. She is from northern england and is an expert on the northern dialect. She first talked to us about standard english and then taught us about the dialect. that was the most interesting thing ever. She told us about the differences between the north and the south and the perceptions of them. she is from the north and said that if you are from the south you are perceived as being a "softy" because of their posh 
accents. She was also able to mimic like every accent of england and give us examples which was really neat. It was great cause for the first time we were actually able to learn about the varieties of english from someone who actually knows it and lives it. She taught us about the "bath" and "strut" lines that are in england. Supposedly you can tell where someone lives from the way they pronounce the two words. The funniest part of the lecture was when she told us that not all parts of england are non-rhotic speaking (not prouncing the /r/ sound) and she said that two small areas do say the r's like americans do. She then tried to pronounce the word "arm" like an american (with the /r/ sound) and couldnt do it! It was so funny to me to think we are technically have an accent that is different and can not be duplicate by others.
accents. She was also able to mimic like every accent of england and give us examples which was really neat. It was great cause for the first time we were actually able to learn about the varieties of english from someone who actually knows it and lives it. She taught us about the "bath" and "strut" lines that are in england. Supposedly you can tell where someone lives from the way they pronounce the two words. The funniest part of the lecture was when she told us that not all parts of england are non-rhotic speaking (not prouncing the /r/ sound) and she said that two small areas do say the r's like americans do. She then tried to pronounce the word "arm" like an american (with the /r/ sound) and couldnt do it! It was so funny to me to think we are technically have an accent that is different and can not be duplicate by others. 
After class i went to the Victoria and Albert Museum with Lillie. I have already been but she hadnt so and i didnt mind going again. The best part of the museum was their jewelry exhibit! It was so amazing and i was thinking of mom the whole time! you would have loved it! They had different pieces of jewelry throughout history, starting with like the 2nd century. They had different pieces all the way up to the present--but those ones were really weird. But they had jewelry that was from the '30s from Berlin, pieces from Paris during WWII. I really cant describe it too well, it was just amazing. There was also a piece there from Georg Jensen...I feel like mom has mentioned him a time or two. The best part of this exhibit was the rings that they showed at the end...they were all put together in a huge circle based on the type of stone the ring had. It was just so incredible, Lillie and 
I wanted to try them all on! The only problem with this exhibit was that it was a small room with lots and lots of lights so it made it really hot. And since i basically read everything, i was like super exhausted by the end. Afterwards we went to an exhibit on stained glass windows which were also really amazing. I enjoyed being able to see them close up. Then i met up with Cathy and M'kynzi to head over to the British Museum to see a required exhibit for class. We were so tired that we didnt really have the energy to look at other exhibits, but we did decide to look at the rosetta stone (a must see!) and the mummies that they had there. The mummies were so cool! Back when whitney was in jerusalem she had the chance to go to egypt and i remembered her telling me that she saw mummies and i was so jealous. so i was really glad i got to see this exhibit--and i didnt even have to go all the way to egypt! I felt like i was in the movie the mummy or something. (or "la momie" as it was advertised in france) It was so fascinating to see actual
mummies. They showed a bunch of open caskets (is that what they are called?) with the rapped bodies inside of them, outside of the case they showed the CAT scans of the mummies to show the bones inside the wraps--so cool! The best part was seeing this one skeleton that had been preserved inside this box. It still had its teeth, hair and skin! Im not even sure how it was able to be preserved the way it has, but it was freakin sweet. The fact that the teeth and tongue were still there was absolutely crazy.
I wanted to try them all on! The only problem with this exhibit was that it was a small room with lots and lots of lights so it made it really hot. And since i basically read everything, i was like super exhausted by the end. Afterwards we went to an exhibit on stained glass windows which were also really amazing. I enjoyed being able to see them close up. Then i met up with Cathy and M'kynzi to head over to the British Museum to see a required exhibit for class. We were so tired that we didnt really have the energy to look at other exhibits, but we did decide to look at the rosetta stone (a must see!) and the mummies that they had there. The mummies were so cool! Back when whitney was in jerusalem she had the chance to go to egypt and i remembered her telling me that she saw mummies and i was so jealous. so i was really glad i got to see this exhibit--and i didnt even have to go all the way to egypt! I felt like i was in the movie the mummy or something. (or "la momie" as it was advertised in france) It was so fascinating to see actual
mummies. They showed a bunch of open caskets (is that what they are called?) with the rapped bodies inside of them, outside of the case they showed the CAT scans of the mummies to show the bones inside the wraps--so cool! The best part was seeing this one skeleton that had been preserved inside this box. It still had its teeth, hair and skin! Im not even sure how it was able to be preserved the way it has, but it was freakin sweet. The fact that the teeth and tongue were still there was absolutely crazy. 
After the museum we took off to see the main attraction of the day--LEIGH STREET! A few days ago i was looking up things in our london books and i decided to see if there was a robins st in london. there wasnt--so i went to the l's to see if there was a leigh st. low and behold there was, and its right next to the british museum too. I was so happy to find out that my roomies were more than happy to travel out there with me to see it. After the museum we were in a bit of a time crunch to get there and get back home (we needed to meet up with people for hannah's birthday dinner in like an hour) by 6.30. So instead of walking we opted to take a ride on a bike....a bike that pulls us along in a little carriage. haha. it wasnt that expensive and we figured it would be fun to get pulled around and see the city from a non-walking view. we thought the guy pulling us might kill us, but it was really fun. Leigh St was great! It is a really small street in Camden and had about 20 stores and a cute pub on it. I was very satisfied to see a street with such a good name. 
We came home and meet up with Rachel, Dena, Hannah, Todd, Andy, Hillary, Christine, and Beth to go out for dinner. We werent sure where we were going but we went to a place that had lots of options. Hannah picked going to Nando's cause she had never been there. I usually wouldnt have minded but M'kynzi and I just went there on saturday, so it would have been nice to switch things up..especially since our limited time left. But it was fine, I tried something new and loved it of course. I have decided that the chips here are the best ever. they are so good, definitely going to miss those in the states. Then we all walked back here and played a few rounds of nerts. It was really fun. I love being able to just hang out and talk with everyone. I feel like now that we are finally getting more and more familiar with each other and the city we have to leave. The biggest bummer about it all is that half of the group that i hung out with tonight doesnt even go to BYU! such a bust!
2 comments:
sorry babe, but i promise you won't be hanging out with anyone from your group once you get back to byu. it's just a sad fact. you are a dork for finding leigh street, but i am not surprised.
the british museum has my favorite museum in london. really cool. and i agree w/ kelly. i hung out w/ my london friends a couple of times, and then that was it...and we even were living right next to each other in provo. but who knows, could be different.
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