Let the bus tour begin

Yesterday we had to leave London. It was really sad and I realized that my time here went by too fast. We all started to pack up on Sunday night and I felt like we had just arrived in our flat. How was it already time to leave? Luckily our last night was memorable. We were listening to Britney Spears as we packed and when “Gimme More” came on we had to have a dance party! We turned off the lights and started to dance, but that turned into something really dangerous since we barely had any room on the floor since it was covered with our luggage and so much crap all over the place. So Cathy almost knocked down her closet and I ran my toes into Lillie’s suitcase. It was quite fun—as the British would say. But the best part of packing was that I opened up my suitcase and discovered another shirt that I brought to London but managed to leave in my suitcase. So I was pretty excited to have a new shirt to wear since I have gotten really sick of all my clothes that I have brought. On Monday morning we had to get up early to get ready and clean our flat. Even though im sad to leave London im not sad at all that I will no longer be sharing a flat with 11 other girls. Our flat was constantly a disaster—there were things left all over the family room, food everywhere and there were always dishes pilled up in the kitched that no one would clean. It was a constant problem that some of the girls could not clean up after themselves. I never really cooked much so I never had much to clean up, but I always cleaned my dishes right away. But some girls would cook meals and then leave their pots on the stove with pasta sill in it and then wouldn’t clean them up. It was a constant fight. And I actually got into a little argument with one of the girls cause she wouldn’t clean her plates. But oh well, we only have a week left so I don’t really care about being too friendly haha. I was so not looking forward to carrying my bags down five flights of stairs either, but luckily Andy and Todd came over in the morning just to help all the girls as much as they could. So that was amazing! I was very very grateful. But on my way to Metro gate I realized that I left my backpack in the hallway next to the front door. So I dropped my bags by the bus and started to run back to the flat. I ran into Rachel and M’kynzi on the way there and they told me that they were the last ones out—which threw me into a panic since we no longer had our keys and my life, aka my laptop, was in that backpack. But then I saw our RA lady from our apartment so I was able to stop here and use her keys. But I was very hot and exhausted after all my running and fretting. Then we had to officially say goodbye to our London home. I literally could have cried as we drove off. Im going to miss the tube, walking down Gloucester, Hyde Park, and just walking around London and knowing that we aren’t just some “tourist” but that we kinda belonged there. Well we headed out to the city of Bath and we got on our coach that we will be on for the rest of the week and it is so not as good as our first coach from Ireland. Our first bus was so much easier to sleep on and more comfortable, but maybe that’s because in Ireland we were all so tired from the jet lag and time change that we all could sleep anywhere. We arrived in Bath at about noon and as we pulled into the city Cathy said something about pigs. I got really excited to learn that they have pig statues throughout the town—it was just like the cows on parade while in New York. So since we had free time before we actually went into the Baths I told M’kynzi that I wanted a picture with every pig that we found. So I think I took 13 pictures with pigs and then two by themselves. I was very happy about this find! Before we went to the Baths we went to a Fashion Museum that was in the city. It was kinda random, especially since they had an exhibit on Marilyn Monroe and displayed about 10 of her dresses, all originals, except for her most famous white dress.

The Roman Baths were really fascinating. They have a big museum set up were you first walk above the large bath and then through different parts of the site. The front of the temple has been excavated and there were walk ways built on top of it so you could still walk around the original site. The front steps of the temple were also shown, so you could walk right by them. I think my favorite part was seeing all of the artifacts that have been uncovered in the bath. Since it is believed that the bath was used for worshipping a goddess many people threw coins, dishes, jewelry and even curses into the pool as in offering. Being able to see all of these artifacts reminded me of my research paper I wrote from my History 200 class on material culture. My paper discussed the inferences and conclusions you can make from artifacts and materials from the time period you are studying. So when they displayed the coins and other artifacts it talked about how these things can show what type of people may have come and why they came to the bath. The museum was really big and really interesting. There were spots were you could see the water running into the bath and it showed how the water system worked. And there were also spots that had other original pieces from the temple that have been found and they were displayed. Then we headed out to the Baths—which almost kinda reminded me Stonehenge in the fact that you have seen so many photos of it that it makes it less exciting to see. But I’m still glad I was able to see it first hand.

After Bath we left for Cardiff. And it wasn’t until we were in Cardiff did I find out that it is in Wales. So last night I spent the night in Wales. Lillie said she didn’t like Wales, and I responded by saying how do you know? we aren’t even there yet. Then I was informed we had been in Wales for awhile and I didn’t even know it. The hostel we stayed at was so unbelievably nice! We have been spoiled now after staying in such a nice place for our first night on our coach tour. The hostel had been converted from our house and it was brand new and everything from Ikea. When we saw the bathrooms and showers we were ecstatic at their cleanliness!! Then the terrible quad, Rachel, Todd and Andy left to explore the town and get some dinner. We were staying across the street from Cardiff’s Rugby stadium. It was crazy to see this huge stadium for a rugby team—something we aren’t use to in the states. For dinner we went to the most shady Mcdonalds wannabe ever that was pretty sick. The Chicken Cottage. Definitely don’t want to experience that again. The hostel had a nice flat screen tv with billions of movies so a few of us sat and watched John Tucker Must Die and then The Notebook. It was kinda nice to veg and rest and watch sappy movies. We packed up this morning and headed out to an unknown destination.

Today we stayed in Cardiff and went to the most random outdoor museum ever. We got there and none of us knew where we were and what the point of it at all. It was an outdoor like village with cottages and fields. It was just like Bunratty Castle in Ireland—so we weren’t up to looking at much cause it all just looks the same now. And to make it worse it was on and off raining the entire time, so it made it less enjoyable. But we got to the gardens outside this castle and the rain kinda made it more beautiful. But the castle was random—we don’t know why it was there or whose it was. We just know that it was some rich family’s summer home. It was really cool though and the gardens were beautiful. But our theme questions of the day were: what is this? why are we here? and where are we going? Don had originally scheduled us to be there for 3 hours but we vetoed that idea and headed out to some church history site. I knew we were going to some places that were related to the church but I didn’t know exactly what it was but we drove out to Gloucester to see one of them.

We went to the Gadfield Elm Chapel and the hour that we spent there was easily one of the most amazing experiences on our trip. It was just a small stone cottage that was built by some of the early members of the church from Britain. It was dedicated by President Hinckley in 2004. We got into the building and it was a very small and plain. It had one main room, a small upstairs and then the small chapel. Don asked us all to come into the Chapel to sing hymns and then he decided to have a short impromptu testimony meeting if any one wished to bear their testimonies. We started off our meeting with an amazing prayer from Angela and testimony from Todd and then began to just sing hymns following that. The spirit was so amazing and so strong. I haven’t felt the spirit that strong in a really long time. The amazing thing about it was that while in London we have had the opportunity to visit lots of cathedrals and other churches. We have been to St. Pauls, Westminster Abbey, Canterbury and so many more. All of these cathedrals are big and beautiful, their architecture is amazing, it is decked out in gold and just phenomenal. We even went to evensong at St. Paul’s where they read from the scriptures and the choir sang, and even they did this the ceremony was just empty, there was no spirit. And then we travel out to this small and plain chapel and the spirit was so strong there. It was just an amazing testament to me of the truthfulness of the gospel and it made me appreciate the sacrifice of the early Saints in Britain. Many people were emotional, including myself, and we were all very surprised for this experience—we were not expecting something so great to happen during our short stop.

Then we left for our long journey to Liverpool! Where I currently am and listening to the Beatles in my hostel. This hostel is pretty nice too and is completely decked out in Beatles pictures. The bad thing about this hostel is that you have to pay to use the internet! and since we are all addicted, most of us are sucking it up and paying for it. This city is much different then what we have seen before, it’s a whole lot dirtier then London! But im excited to venture out tomorrow and see it, I think I will like the feel of this city. Our plans are to hit up some Beatles museums before we have to leave by noonish.