Highlights

Hello again!  So it's becoming impossibly difficult for me to document everything I do in London on this blog, but I am certainly trying.  Rest assured, I am making a list of things I've seen in London so I won't forget them, but for your sake I will refrain from sharing that list because it would be really long and really boring. Here are a few of my recent favorites though:

Hearing about the Blitz from a former London Stake President who lived through WWII.  We got to have a special fireside with Pres. Chittock who was born in 1936 and lived through the Blitz in London.  It was quite remarkable to hear from someone who was personally affected by the War, and it was especially refreshing to hear a Londoners perspective.  We Americans don't hear much about the War before Pearl Harbor, so it was humbling to see how badly the British people suffered because they wouldn't stand idly by and let Nazi Germany take over Europe.  More than learning about names and dates and facts and figures, though, I appreciated learning how much in my life I take for granted.  Like the fact the America is (for the time being) the world's super-power.  Britain was that way once, and their tenure was a lot longer-lasting than ours has been. It must've been heartbreaking to watch their nation fall from such a thriving Empire to a desperate country over-ridden by enemy bombers.  I can't imagine what heartache those people must've lived through! And yet life went on.  A school was bombed and destroyed one day, and children were going to it the next. They had to, because life went on.  Even so, moving on with work and families and happiness in the face of such devastation would take far more courage than I possess.  I only wish I had the same wisdom, the same humility, the same courage as those people who have gone before me.

Celebrity sightings.  We saw James McAvoy, as you avid blog readers already know, and we saw Simon Woods cross the street with us by the Westminster tube stop.  If that name's not familiar, it's okay.  It wasn't to me either.  You might know Simon Woods as Mr. Bingley of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, as the scheming blue-blood in Penelope, or, my personal favorite, as "the good-looking red-head".  He was looking sharp and stylish in his suit while carrying a man-purse.  Yes, man-purse.  There is no other way to describe it.  But don't worry, he rocked that purse in such a way that I never questioned his manhood.

Eating at the Orangery outside Kensington Palace.  We ordered some amazing desserts and we got to eat in a fabulous location.  That's a really great combination in my book!

Going running today through Hyde Park.  This made me happy mostly because the park is beautiful, but partly because I've been eating so much crap here.  Pretty sure I'm going to pull another Hawaii.  In case you don't know, pulling a Hawaii= gaining at least 10 pounds in a short amount of time away from home.  I'm really crossing my fingers that I won't gain weight here. And, while I'm crossing my fingers to stave off the extra pounds I'm also doing more useful things like running, yoga, and jazzercising.  And jazzercising (because I'm sure you were wondering) is basically hopping, skipping, dancing,  and running around in my apartment because it's too cold to go outside and run.  Haha and in case you were worried, I've been doing that where no one can see me.  I DO still care enough about my social standing to avoid letting anyone know me as the crazy girl that jazzercises in our flat when she could be running in Hyde Park across the street.

Seeing "The Twelfth Night" at the Unicorn Theatre.  I was skeptical about the name of that theatre, too.  And I was skeptical about the fact that a 10+ character play was going to be acted out by only 6 characters, one of whom was a man playing a woman (Viola) who pretends to be a man (Cesario).  I was also skeptical about the fact that said man--playing a woman playing a man-- was also going to play his first character's (Viola's) brother Sebastian, especially considering the fact that at the end of the play, there's a scene in which both Viola and Sebastian reunite, and this guy can't be in two places at once.  Anyway, there's no way I could explain the ingenuity of the way they acted it out for us, but they did and it was brilliant.  What's more, because it was such an intimate performance and it was a preview, we got to talk to the director and the actors afterward to ask them about the play.  So. Awesome.  I loved it.

All in all, London is amazing.  I'm soaking up every second!