July 1st and 2nd

We mostly did a lot of driving yesterday. Our hostile in Cardiff’s name is Nomad, and the sign on their water heater says not to touch the “water eater.” By the time we got to Cardiff, almost everything was closed. So we went and found some pizza (at a kebab and pizza place run by some Persians, and it was some of the best, although sketchiest, pizza of my life) and wandered around until we got bored since everything was closing. Even though Cardiff is a relatively big city, everything closes at like 6, except the grocery store which closes at like 8. It’s really weird. Also, people aren’t up early in the morning. Or out very much on Sundays. At least in the part of Europe. London will probably be different.

We went into England for most of today’s adventures. We went to Benbow’s farm, where many of the early English saints were baptized by Wilford Woodruff in the pond in the backyard. Then we went to the oldest LDS chapel (in the world, not just England) and a hill nearby where the apostles would go to pray and have meetings since there was no temple here yet. I’m not sure how they got anything accomplished, though, because it was so windy up the hill that I couldn’t even hear myself think.

I’ve been learning a lot of things on this trip, about myself, about the people around me, about cultures and things like that. But one thing that I should be learning but haven’t been is directions. Since we are almost always in big groups, I let someone else take the lead and trust they will get us to where we need to go and back safely. If they led us in a big circle, I probably wouldn’t even know it and I would think it was the quickest way directly back. I need to change that. I need to practice learning where I am and remembering landmarks and being able to find my way around by myself. I’ll get to work on that. Maybe… tomorrow.

June 30th- Wonderland

Today, we went to church.

We got there half an hour early and stood in the “lobby” awkwardly until someone invited us inside. It was held in an office suite of a building, and the branch was really small. We, like, tripled their branch size. They all had great accents, some Welsh, most English. They were a little bit rude to each other- it seemed to me- when giving comments and stuff, although they also laughed a lot. The singing was not great, either. I either fit in or actually mildly improved it. A couple of youngins talked about seminary because they had had seminary graduation the day before. For some reason, all the teenagers I’ve met in Europe look a lot older than they actually are. In Sunday school we had the lesson about the cream and misspelled name and not being offended. Apparently it gets on Jacob’s nerves because it never happened and was definitely not the reason Martin Harris left the church. In combined priesthood and relief society, they talked about giving to the British Legion (like American Red Cross) and tried to combine it with service.

Then we got home, ate, took a nap, and went down to the beach. I am lucky I’m a light sleeper because they would have gone to the beach without me if I hadn’t heard Katie come in to wake up Nicole. The pier was really cool. They had a real live puppet show and their accents were great and the children were so cute and I loved it. There were lots of shops and attractions and they don’t seem to care about Copyright laws very much, because pretty much any famous cartoon character you could imagine was used in the names and on pictures to get people to come inside with their kids. It was a nice little walk and it’s cool to be so close to the ocean. We only stuck our feet in for a minute because the water was cold, but it was nice.

 Llandudno is the city where Alice Liddell (who Alice in Wonderland is based off of) and her family used to spend vacations. We took a lot of pictures with the statues while we walked around. Then we rushed back to the hostile to get to an impromptu musical fireside where we did most of the music. The Gardners had invited a few random people they met on the street and only four people from the branch showed up. It was interesting, to put it nicely. I didn’t volunteer for anything, because I probably would have ruined the spirit. But I prayed. It rained while we were in there, but it was mostly just really windy today. The biscuits were good and there was a plate full of chocolates. I kept thinking how I wanted to sneak them into my purse for later and then Katie said those very words out loud, so we put the chocolates in our purses so we could eat them at home while we watched Alice in Wonderland. Only Matt, Kyra, Katie, and I made it all the way to the end of the movie. Oh whale!

June 29th- Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, AKA the City with the Longest Name in the World!

Today, we were told we were going to ride a fairy to whales. It sounded like the most magical thing we could think of. And then our hopes and dreams were crushed.

For some reason, I always thought that ferries would be small and flat and open air. That’s not what these “sea trucks” were. They are like mini cruise-liners. Where you can’t afford any of the food and so you eat a protein bar instead. I had planned on sleeping on the way over, but we couldn’t find the lounge chairs, so we played cards on board instead. I went to bed early last night, but it only lasted an hour or two. Then people came in and the light was on and people outside were loud. I think a couple of drunk Germans were singing Material World and the Barbie Girl song. And then Abbey’s alarm went off at 5 am even though she didn’t get up until 6. She sets like ten different alarms, so none of us get any sleep. It’s terrible.

After the ferry, we got a new coach and a new driver. The bus went up, but the driver went down. No driver will ever be as good as Frank. At least when we did the count off, this new driver knew to finish it off, just like Frank did, without being asked. The fancy bus has better seats, and it also a toilet- right smack dab in the middle! But at least you have to go down a few stairs to get to it. And there’s a door. But the driver, Tony, made sure to specify- “liquids only.”

We went to a city with a really long name (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which means “the church of Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tysilio by the red cave”) and I went to the coop to get some pounds. Upon traveling around, we discovered that the “Cooperative” owns pretty much any branch of business you can think of. They have a grocery store, a bank, a funeral store, everything. Then we went to Conwy castle, where we took tons of really great pictures, I ate some honeycomb ice cream (which was super creamy and sweet and delicious- especially since I hadn’t really eaten much today, still being cheap), and I got to know the people in my group better. Most of us are starting to be really great friends, even though we’ve only known each other for a little while.

After that, we came to our hostel and walked to the grocery store where all I bought was oranges and muffins. Now we are all chilling watching Cool Runnings. Church tomorrow will be great because tomorrow will be a relaxing day. I just hope they don’t call on me to give a talk. Cuz apparently they do that spur of the moment here.

PS, to show you how crazy the roads are, while on the bus we went through an archway with only like two inches’ allowance on all sides. It was crazy and a little claustrophobicish.

Also, at the grocery store, the cashiers sit in office chairs. Weird.

June 28th? Dublin!

I am very tired today. We were up early. Our continental breakfast once again consisted of cereal and toast- I’m really starting to get sick of it. We had to leave early to walk to Trinity University and got there a half hour before the exhibit we were going to visit even opened. At first I was mad because it was chilly outside and I could have slept in longer, but the longer we stood there, the longer the line behind us got and I was okay with it. We went in to see the Book of Kells exhibit- wasn’t very exciting for me since I’d already learned most of those things from my History of the Book class and manuscripts had started to look the same for me. Also, most of the exhibit was just walls with words and pictures on them and when you got to the room that actually had the Book of Kells (which, for those of you who are wondering, is one of the oldest Bible manuscripts in the world) in it, it was full and it was hard to see the book with everyone standing around the table. But it was interesting and I enjoyed it well enough.

the magnificent library!

Following that, we were allowed into the upper part of the library. I wasn’t expecting much, because I didn’t even know anything about Trinity University in the first place, but then I made my way upstairs into the most magnificent library I had ever seen! It is humongous and gorgeous and all these busts line the walls. I had seen pictures on the internet before of this place and I had no idea the library was in Dublin! I freaked out! And then took a picture with Shakespeare. And looked at all the books and the display cases. We weren’t allowed to touch the books on the shelves, but Becca, Nichole, and I were wondering together and Becca asked me if I thought some of the larger books were heavy. We were standing next to a security guard so I asked him, not expecting a reply really, how heavy the books were. And, after he took his music out and I repeated the question, he goes, “I don’t know, why don’t you hold one?” And handed it to me! Just like that! I got to touch one of the books! And I was the only one! He immediately took it back out of my hands, though, because he didn’t want other people to see I got to touch the book. I felt so special.

After that, we went to gift shop, just like any true tourist does. Then we wondered all over for a few blocks trying to find where a free walking tour was meeting. We ended up making like three or four circles and asking a couple of pedestrians and a doorman for directions, but we found it eventually. The tour was great. We went to a lot of political buildings (like the one where 19 rebels went to take over the government, killed the guard, and –finding the place empty—left thinking that they were going to be ambushed by the government who had earlier sunk a German ship housing illegal weapons meant for the insurrection. Really, they were out at the horse race) (or the one where while digging for the foundation, they found an entire Viking village, but only saved a few artifacts and then dumped the cement anyway), musically significant buildings (Christs’ Church where “Messiah” was first performed) (the building where U2 was discovered), and parks and statues of all sorts. My legs were soooo tired by the end of it, but the tour guide was interesting and funny. He made fun of Irish people in the fun way that only Irish people can.

Johnathan Swift's birthplace

bog body

Afterward, we went to yet another gift shop and then went through the free national museum. We saw all kinds of things. My favorite was probably the bog bodies, which were basically mummified bodies they found in the bogs in Ireland. And the pole dancing cherubims- my mind is not always appropriate. We met up with the Gardners and were going to go to the Church where they keep a mummified mouse and cat (they had gotten stuck in the organ) until we found out it cost money to go. So instead we bought a cookie and headed to a restaurant to finally get real authentic Irish food. I was a little afraid to try something new, but I had lamb stew and it was fantastic. Matt got the Irish breakfast- white pudding was intestines and black was blood. He ate all of the white, but not very much of the black. We are all starting to be friends now, and that makes me really happy.

We also had to survey a couple of people for class. The first guy was nice, but he didn’t really know what to say. He didn’t really have too many opinions about the different ways people talk. It was really kind of him to let us interrupt him while he was drinking his tea. For some reason, I wasn’t very afraid to talk to him. The other guy I talked to, I was terrified of, but we had been hanging out by his table awkwardly and had already asked another man if he was from Ireland but he wasn’t so we were running out of options and we made eye contact so I just talked to him and he also turned out really nice. People here are so helpful and friendly.

As a side note, a few things about the buildings; there is no space in between the buildings, like they are literally jammed up against each other. And everyone smokes and drinks, so it doesn’t smell very good here. And the river is absolutely disgusting. It looks the way I would imagine the river in Lehi’s dream to look in real life. Apparently for the millennium, they put a clock in the bottom hoping to shine up a countdown through the water, only when the time came it didn’t work, so they had wasted millions of dollars on it. And it’s still there, because they didn’t see the point in removing it.

It rained a little, but if felt like being under the misters at Harkins theater, except that I was cold instead of hot. And drivers are crazy so sometimes it’s hard to cross the street. They also use the F-word as often as the D-word. The F-word isn’t a big deal for them.

The spire at the exact center of Dublin

            Also, a lot of the people in this group think it’s stupid to use the shortened words (like totes for totally) and so they use the words to mock them. Only, it doesn’t seem like mocking because they do it so often. And now, sometimes I use the words, too. My language is disintegrating into teenage yuckiness.

June 27th? Silly Americans!

First, a quick story that Frank- our simply delightful Irish bus driver- told us about some mountains we passed along the way. He pointed out the three hills in the distance and told us they were called the three sisters: one is round, one is medium round, and one is pointy and they are the boobs of three different aged sisters! Do you see it? But the really great part is that there are three girls who like to stick together in the study abroad group and we now refer to them as the three sisters. Only I don’t think they know we do that.

This morning when I went to take a shower, I was shocked to find that the stalls were almost completely see through. While brushing my teeth the night before I had been slightly aware of this fact, but there was some sort of film over the glass, and at least there were three stalls instead of a few heads coming out of a single post, right? With the main bathroom door closed, I was sure it would be no big deal. But upon entering the stall and pulling the curtain closed, I made the unfortunate mistake of looking over to the stall two away from me (as the middle one was empty) and now will be scarred for life. I can only imagine how much worse it would have been had the girl been in the stall immediately adjacent to my own. Although I am glad you couldn’t see every detail of the other person’s body, it was still kind of an awkward shower. I stared at a single spot on the wall the entire time and I can confidently say that that was one of the fastest showers I had ever taken in my entire life.

Blarney Castle

After getting ready, we got back on the bus and headed out toward Blarney. When riding in the bus, it is a common thing to fall asleep and become completely disoriented when you wake up. For instance, Rebecca woke up when we got to the Muckross house and immediately asked “Where are we?” in her groggy voice only to be answered with laughter. None of us knew where we were except the faculty and bus driver. For me, I usually experience a fright because we are about to turn left and I see a car coming on the right side and Frank just plows forward anyway and I think “Oh my gosh we are going to die!” and then I realize that we are driving in the left lane and we’re really okay after all. Also, when walking along the road, I often look inside the cars and find that there is no one in the driver’s seat. Who is driving these cars? Is it a ghost? And then I remember that the driver’s seat is on the right side here. I’ll get used to it eventually, perhaps. It’s still hard to remember which way to look when crossing the street.

Crossing the street is dangerous even if you know which was to look, though. These Europeans with all their fancy schmancy sports cars come barreling down these narrow, windy roads without a care in the world and it’s terrifying! And driving up in the mountains in a ginormous bus on the narrow, super twisty mountain roads not only freaks me out, but also makes me car sick and during much of the bus rides through my whole trip I was and will be carsick. Oh whale! I knew this was part of the deal.

Weather was something else I knew was part of the deal, but it has surprisingly been good so far. It was cloudy this morning, but quickly turned back to sunny, albeit a little humid, and it only rained when we came into Dublin in the late evening.

Faerie Glade

Sometimes I’m not sure why the faculty has to stick so close to their schedules. We had nothing really of importance to do when we came into Dublin and it makes me sad that we couldn’t have spent more time at Blarney. Blarney was the first super touristy place we went to, and the line to the stone was about an hour and a half long. We booked it straight there and that was all we really had time to do. And old man helped people get on the ground laying down on their backs and then pushed them quickly so their faces ran into the stone for a split second and then came away again. Which I guess you could call a kiss. The surface was rough so I wasn’t quite as worried about germs or how many people had kissed the stone before me- it wasn’t too worn down, right? Also, they had some cleaner and I think they clean the stone every so often. There were also awful rumors going around beforehand that some people like to pee on the stone, but I can’t see that being possible with all the security they had there. So now, I am supposedly blessed with the gift of gab!

Blarney castle was by far the coolest castle so far. There was a lot to do on the grounds. So, even though we were supposed to wait by the castle for the rest of the group who was about a half hour behind us to go kiss the stone, our group of girls ran off to soak in as much as we could. Sarah, Kyra and I went to the Faerie Glade where we saw a cute little house carved into a stump for the faeries and we left coins inside of it. We saw the witch’s rock and walked next to the river which had plants with the largest leaves I’d ever seen. On our way back to the bus, we walked past the caves and went inside for a moment. I hadn’t realized how hot it’d gotten until I went into the nice cool caves. It was wet inside, too, but I was stupid and sat down to have my picture taken. I came out with a brown bum…

Then we rushed back to the bus only to find that they were being lenientish about our return anyway. We went to a café to eat where I just had one of my granola bars and tried a piece of someone’s currant bread and someone else’s rhubarb pie. Aren’t we healthy- a lot of the time people just eat breads or desserts instead of buying a full meal. I limit myself to only buying one meal a day, to save money.

Then we bussed to Rock of Cashel, which was a cathedral (“St. Peter’s Rock” in Cashel) It was huge and it was pretty, but there wasn’t very much inside. There were a few stone tables thought I thought might be gravesites. I asked Katie “Is this a tomb?” She responded that she wasn’t sure but it could be. I said “We can make it a tomb,” thinking that if someone laid on top with their arms crossed it would look like a tomb. For some reason, I’m really into posed pictures right now. But she laughed and said, “Who do you hate on this trip?”

The Tomb

Then, we took a bus to Dublin. We were pretty tired, so most of us slept or read books the whole time instead of trying to play games like we sometimes did. It rained a little while we drove there but it stopped by the time we parked and went inside the hostel. This hostel was much more lively and tailored toward young people. There were teenagers from all countries there and an especially large group from Germany. We went to a bar down the street to eat. (We being the boys, Katie, Nicole, Liz and I.) While looking at the menu, I noticed a section was labeled “bar bites” and wondered aloud if it was something you could only eat at the bar. When the waitress came to take our order, Matt asked her about the bar bites and she gave him the weirdest look. Then, the rest of the night she kept joking with him, pretending to take his food to the bar for him so he could eat it and such. He was officially the silly American. And now that he already has that label, if there is ever a stupid question we need answered, we have Matthew ask it.

After eating, we walked around for a bit. There are lots of drinkers and smokers in this city, but at least they don’t smoke inside the buildings. At one point, an old man saw us and said “hey ladies” trying to be flirty. His voice was raspy and I’m pretty sure he was missing a few teeth. I know it was rude, but it made me crack up. The streets were dirty, and the river was even dirtier. A man who was walking his dog just let it poop in middle of the sidewalk and didn’t do anything about it. It makes me miss the countryside. Also, since there are more buildings there are less plants. We came back and were thinking about partying on the rooftop, but upon going up there, we saw it was taken by a bunch of drunks so we came back downstairs to play cards. We were soon joined by Markus, a German boy who was 16 and drunk. He played with us and flirted with Liz a lot. (Now they Skype a lot and he is already talking about marriage…)We made a pretty big clump in middle of the hallway and were being a bit noisy, so eventually we got kicked out of the hallway. We went to bed pretty late that night. I am trying not to miss a single opportunity, no matter how tired I am.