The Christians and the Pagans - 22 July 2011

For those who didn't know, Britain is filthy rich with Celtic and Roman history. This is why paganism seemed to be our traveling theme for this past Friday.

After finishing class, the group journeyed into the countryside to a small (ha!) cromlech at Tinkinswood. I loved the sound of that straight off. Tinkinswood. I can practically see the elves, faeries, and goblins holding a Midsummer Eve's gala there just by hearing the name. And the spot didn't disappoint. While I didn't see any magical beasties, I did see the burial chamber tucked away in a pretty glade, and it was impressive to say the least. The top stone alone weighs approximately forty tons!

  

 
We then traveled to another cromlech at St. Lyfans. This one was not as big but its location was just as good. Settled at the top of a small hill, this burial chamber looks out over rolling pasture land. In fact, a small herd of cows were resting right next to the ancient structure.

What was interesting about both of these structures is that we can never really know why they were built. Were they for the community leaders? The community in general? Human sacrifices? Each is a probable answer. It was strange to think that underneath those massive stones were people's graves with hidden stories to tell.

From then on we took a turn for the Christian and traveled to Beaupre Castle. This castle was interesting because it is a bridge between the fortified castle home and the open, fanciful manor home of the upper classes. This is made apparent by the lovely Renaissance porch and its lack of basic medival fortifications such as a moat, arrow slits and murder holes. My favorite part of this castle was having to walk through three or four fields to get there. I got a fresh, renewed feeling of peace and joy as I tromped over the countryside.

Next, we drove to a really beautiful Cathedral in Llandaff, a district of Cardiff. Although it wasn't open for the public during the hour we spent there, I still really enjoyed it. We walked around the catheral and admired the detailed architecture, lovely gardens, and I particularly loved the graveyard. Is it morbid to enjoy visiting old cemetaries? This one was special because if you walked down a little dirt path you came to the overgrown sections where the graves were covered with wild grasses and flowers. It was simply beautiful. I'm also pretty sure I found the bridge under which lives a troll who taxes passing goats.

So there you have it - the Christians and the Pagans. My version of course. For those interested here is Dar Williams'. The video itself is lame but the song is a good one and worth listening to.

Welsh Heritage Days - 20 and 21 July 2011

I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me, those who are to come. I looked back and saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers, and in front, to see my son, and his son, and the sons upon sons beyond. And their eyes were my eyes.

As I felt, so they had felt, and were to feel, as then, so now, as tomorrow and forever. Then I was not afraid, for I was in a long line that had no beginning, and no end, and the hand of his father grasped my father's hand, and his hand was in mine, and my unborn son took my right hand, and all, up and down the line that stretched from Time That Was, to Time That Is, and Is Not Yet, raised their hands to show the link, and we found that we were one . . .

from How Green Was My Valley written by Richard Llewellyn

As you can see from the quote above, the Welsh are very proud of their heritage. Over the past Wednesday and Thursday I got to experience a little piece of that legacy. 

It started with a big class trip to the Big Pit Mine, named so because it had the largest shaft than any other mine in Wales. Big Pit was closed in the early 1980s when Magaret Thatcher shut down hundreds of mines across Britian and denationalized the coal industry. What made this experience special for me was knowing the history of mining is Wales and England before hand. I had read about how thousands and thousands of people worked in the mines and depended on their pittance of a wage to take care of their families. I had learned about the dangers and horrible conditions. I had learned about how people were practically enslaved to the coal and iron masters. I had learned about the child labor and hard work men and women were tasked with. I had learned about tiny row houses. I had learned about the pitt ponies. I had learned about the constant state of filth. I had learned about the unavoidable health problems that came from a life time of mining. But I couldn't really understand or imagine it until I was there. We took a walking tour of the mine led by an ex-professional miner. He outfitted us with hard hats and headlamps, and then we were sardined into the elevator and taken down the shaft.

It was an enlightening experience (which is ironic because the mine was very dark). I stood in pitchblackness in the same places that six and seven year-olds stood in pitch blackness waiting for the sound of a dram. My hand was not even a quarter of an inch from my face and I still couldn't see it and those little children would sit in darkness like that for twelve hours at a time. I walked the paths the miners did, constantly ducking and hunching my back uncomfortably so I wouldn't hit my head. I saw how easily accidents could happen with the poor protections for the men underground. I saw the stalls the ponies were kept in waiting through the night in inky darkness until someone with a candle would come and lead them to another exhausting days work. I saw where father and son teams would work with pick-axes, chisels and hammers to free the coal and sort out the rubbish. They weren't paid if their dram wasn't sorted and clear of useless material. The unfairness and cruelty of the mining industry was so present in the mine. 

I can't say I'm not thankful for how everything has happened, because I am thankful. The mines of Wales and England were pivotal to the Industrial Revolution that transformed the world and helped bring us to where we are today. But I think it's important to not forget what those men, women and children sacrificed. They weren't trying to change the world. They were just trying to make a living and I can barely comprehend how they managed to do that in their circumstances.

On Thursday evening Susan and I had the pleasure of attending a rehearsal of the Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir. They were spectacular. This is not because of the quality of their music, but because of the amount of spirit they put into singing. Most of the men were somewhere between 50 and 70 but they acted and teased like naughty little boys. We met shouts of "Croeso!", "Good for you!" and "Well done!" when we announced that we were in Cardiff to study Welsh and so many of them wanted to visit with us and hear a bit more of our story (as well as speak Welsh) after the rehearsal. But most of all, I love them because they poured their hearts into every song they sung. You could see it radiating on their faces. 

There is a Welsh proverb attributed to Wilfred Wilson that goes "To be born Welsh is to be born privileged. Not with a silver spoon in your mouth, But music in your blood. And poetry in your soul." The men of the Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir embodied this in every single way.   

London Rain is Falling Down - 16 July 2011

Get up at 5:30 AM. Walk a couple miles to the bus stop. Ride on the National Express for three hours. Hello London.

This is one of the first things that greeted me:

This place definitely has its billboard priorities straight. We saw a huge 3-D billboard for Harry Potter but we whizzed by it too fast for me to take a picture, so just know that this awesome display is actually second best.

The morning was mostly spent charging past historical attractions and snapping pictures as quickly as possible. Here are a few in the order I saw them.

Buckingham Palace. Queen's home.

Mr. Cameron wasn't out watering his flowers and the security guards wouldn't let me use No.10's knocker.

The beautiful Westminster Abbey. I didn't go inside because of the line. Yes, you are looking at it.

Parliament building on the Thames. Big Ben is directly above my head. We were crossing that bridge just as it chimed noon. Lovely.

The Thames itself. For those of you who didn't know, the Thames is a brackish, tidal river.  Its water is a mixture of fresh and seawater that falls and rises throughout the day. Additionally, its banks are disgusting. My nasty, dirty shoes prove it.

Later, we pulled on our ponchos and raincoats to be groundlings at Shakespeare's Old Globe Theater. A groundling was someone who could only afford a cheap ticket and would stand in the middle of the theater, around the stage to watch a show. This is what we did - for almost three hours. My legs ached, especially after running around all morning! The theater itself was very impressive! I loved imagining Shakespeare himself coming out to great his fans in that great big, wooden octagon. I can't help but include some history. Shakespeare wrote his plays to appeal to the masses of common people. It is therefore logical that his theater was actually built on the "cheap" side of London, literally split by the Thames. I think seeing one of his plays in the 17th Century would have been a rowdier ordeal than what I experienced in the same building. I'm thinking I missed out. :)

Moving on, we arrived early enough that we stood right next to the stage. In the second picture below, the green and yellow ponchos are my group. The play we watched was very well acted, but a little raunchy. I guess I should have expected that from a drama fictionalizing the life story of Anne Boleyn.

I apologize for the blurriness of this picture. I was cold and shivering.

After the play it was back to charging through the streets. Literally. Tom is a very fast walker and I was feeling sick on top of soaked, hungry, stiff and tired. Overall, that made keeping up hard to do. Luckily, he was carrying a bright orange umbrella and the rain hardly ever let up, so even if I was 20 yards behind him (and others were behind me) I could still follow. Here are some of the things I looked at in the afternoon.

St. Paul's - The inside of the cathedral was breathtaking but we weren't supposed to take pictures. I am cursing my rule-abiding nature now. Anyways, the atmosphere there was spellbinding, especially so because the choir sent ringing music throughout the whole hall.

I can't even remember what this building is because we saw so many. Baha. Sorry.

Trafalgar Square with Admiral Nelson looking down on all of us. Unfortunately, he was cut out of the picture.

And finally, the church where Henry Higgins first meets Eliza Doolittle.  Be jealous.

Some other highlights included Winston Churchill's War Cabinet Rooms, Covent Garden, the West End (with all the theaters...), the National Portrait Gallery, World War I and World War II memorials, many flats Mick Jagger lived in, Charring Cross, the Princess Diana walkway, the famous statue of Boudica, the Tate Modern, the Millenial Bridge (destroyed by Death Eaters in the beginning of the movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), and the Tower Bridge. 

And through all of this it didn't stop raining. My clothing was soaked but I couldn't wear my rain coat without sweating. The weather made this day a little hard to get through but looking back I couldn't have had the real London experience without it. So I'm glad - in a perverse sort of way.

Hoping your weather is better than mine,

Mariah

Dydd Sul - 10 Gorfennaff 2011

First, a bit of trivia about Wales. Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales. Wales comes from wallas, the Anglo-Saxon word for foreigner or stranger and cymru is the Welsh word for comrade/friend. Isn't that interesting? I love that the people of Wales were so banded together.

Alright, traveling adventures on Sunday! Sunday was fun but I did have a slight headache all day which put a mild damper on things. We started off the day by visiting Gloucester Cathedral. This is where they filmed a lot of scenes in Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. Look at my pictures and then watch the second movie. Yes, the hallway that the heir of Slytherin left his (her!) messages on is in Gloucester Cathedral and I saw them! Regardless of that it was a gorgeous church. I loved the tall arches with their gothic points and fannned marble tops. The stained glass was a treat too! We also passed a cute shop dedicated to Beatrix Potter called "The Tailor of Gloucester. She was originally from Gloucester which means that is where her books were first published. I have always loved her stories and water color paintings.

Next, we went to some LDS church history sites. The first is a little church called Gadfield Elms. The chapel is the oldest, dedicated LDS chapel still standing in the world. It was very small and quaint. The history behind Gadfield Elms is that the chapel was originally owned by the United Brethren. Their whole congregation was converted in the 1800s by Wilford Woodruff and his companion in 1836. That's over 100 men! The fellowshipping continued from there. Gadfield Elms was a very special, reverent building.

We continued a little further up to Benrow Pond at Hill Farm. This is where Wilford Woodruff baptized hundreds of people. It has a beautiful plaque explaining the history and I just felt so proud of the work that my Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather helped to bring forth. Whenever I learn about the faithful people earnestly searching for the truth and then so quickly and readily accepting the gospel I am touched by the Spirit. That feeling came over me at both Gadfield Elms and Benrow Pond. They were both very special places.

We continued from there to get lost but eventually made it to Stratford-upon-Avon. This is the town where William Shakespeare was born and where he died. Ergo, the town was very much geared toward tourists. There were many cute, little shops, and a few not-so-cute money sinkholes. A meandering river is bordered by parks where people were all layed out in lawn chairs and on blankets. Long and low-ceiling boats gave rides and sailed on the river. We walked all around the main streets and visited quite a few of the shops. I found a sweet Christmas store. 168 days till Christmas!

The monument for The Bard

You can't see the sign but the store is called "The Nutcracker"

Then we moved onto the Shakespeare sites. We visited Shakespeare's grave in the Holy Trinity Church and I looked at the original registers listing his death and his birth! I was surprised by how humble (for someone as famous as he was) his grave was. Sure it had a fabulous, expensive location but there were really hardly any ornaments or decorations on it. I've learned since that even though Shakespeare was massively famous in his day he was comfortable, not enormously wealthy. He had to pay for his, and his families burials out of his own pocket.

We also took a little bit of time to visit Anne Hathaway's (his wife's) cottage, complete with thatched roof. While some of the cottage had been reconstructed most of it was the real deal. I can hardly believe buildings that old are still standing! The garden surrounding the cottage was magically beautiful. Flowers in all sizes and colors burst out of flower beds bordered by meandering walk ways. The English know how to garden - I've never seen anything like it. 

We also made a stop into the Guild Hall in Stratford. I love seeing the things I've learned about. The guild hall was significant because it represented the wealth and power that guilds had in the middle ages. They were a real force to be reckoned with! The hall was pretty but mostly I just cared about why it had been built. I was interested in the frescoes that had been lost during excavation. They depicted St. Helen's journey to retrieve the Cross from Jerusalem. I'm sure they would have been lovely.

That's about it for Sunday. Although I had absolutely no time to relax this weekend, everything I saw was 100% percent worth being exhausted Monday morning. Next weekend is London and the exploration of Cardiff, so stay tuned.

Missing you,

Mariah

Dydd Sadwrn - 9 Gorffennaf 2011

I have classes from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday so the only time I, and my fellow BYU students, get to travel is on the weekends. Let me just say that this past weekend was AMAZING. I live with four other people named Neoma, Hannah, Tom and Susan. They are all wonderful, nice, and fun people so you will see them popping up in this blog over the next two months. 

The following is a travelogue of Saturday, July 9. 

Me, Susan, Hannah, Neoma...Tom is taking the picture

To begin, we traveled to Caer Leon which is the ruins of a Roman amphitheater and barracks. It gave me a much better understanding of how powerful, organized, and smart the Romans were. Not to mention the ruins were beautiful. Also, if anyone needs a laugh look up Roman toilets. :)

Then we went to Chepstow and saw the house that JK Rowling grew up in. It is a quaint, little cottage right next to a beautiful church where her father preached, as well as a very old grave yard. Furthermore,the Forest of Dean is practically her backyard, and right down the road is what's left of Chepstow Castle including hallways, a cellar, a few towers and many walls. I was told that Chepstow Castle was the original inspiration for Hogwarts. After looking at the pictures, can't you just see the world of Harry Potter growing in Rowling's imagination based on her own childhood? 

Next, we drove into the hills and forest to Tintern Abbey. It was probably my favorite place we visited that day - I loved it there so much. It was breathtakingly lovely and unbelievably peaceful. I could understand the feelings Wordsworth experienced as he composed his famous poem because just looking at Tintern Abbey turns your mind to spiritual reflection. Wordsworth captures how I felt in these few lines:

While with an eye made quiet by the power

Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

We see into the life of things. (47-49)

After Tintern, we went to Monmouth Castle. This was my least favorite place, but really it was still pretty cool. It's a rather small castle (at least its ruins are little), but Henry V was born there so it is important to see and appreciate. 

Then we were off to Raglan Castle. This castle was by far the biggest and most ornate castle we visited on Saturday. We climbed excruciatingly high (I was afraid at least) into the towers and walked around the moat. Raglan was a labyrinth, which made it so much fun to explore. We had a small adventure there as well. Neoma was wetting her feet in the moat and almost slipped in when she tried to stick her legs in further but luckily, the rail caught her just in time. We all laughed so hard we almost peed our pants, especially when we saw the nice mud smeared on the bum of her trousers. :) Anyways, it is castles like Raglan that really make me appreciate the brilliance and ingenuity of the people who lived in the Middle Ages. They had no modern technology when they built this gigantic and beautiful fortress! 

The very last place we visited was Usk. The gross name really doesn't do the idyllic town and gorgeous castle justice. Most of the houses in Usk are buildings protected by the National Trust and the castle is actually on privately owned land although the owners let people in for free. This means both the town and the castle have not been "restored." The town is historic and so clean. The ruins of the castle are still covered with vines and flowers, surrounded by rhododenrons, hydrangeas, and huge cherry tomato bushes (like 6 ft high!). There were chickens and geese milling about while some men set up a stage and set for a local production of The Pirates of Penzance in the castle ruins. Can you imagine a more picturesque scene? It reminded me of the book I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. If you haven't read it, you need to go read it. I promise it is well worth your time. 

I finished the day off with Tom and Susan (Hannah and Neoma didn't want to go out again). We walked down to the movie theater in Cardiff and bought tickets for HARRY POTTER 7 PART 2!!! Hurrah! While we were waiting in the ticket line we saw that the theater was going to be playing one Harry Potter film a night until the opening of the new movie. So we went to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I had forgotten how magical the movies are...especially the first two. Since then, I've decided to go to all of the films that I am able to in preparation for the last film. Just typing that made my heart jump and ache all at the same time. In fact, I'm so excited I'm going to put the trailer into this post.

Enjoy,

Mariah

Minnesota...Amsterdam...Cardiff

Lesson learned over the past two days: Attitude is everything.

I thought flying to Cardiff would be easy. Long, but easy. And it was! Only it turned up being much longer than I expected. Due to malfunctions on my first plane flying out from Salt Lake City, I missed my connection to Amsterdam from Minneapolis by five minutes. That meant 6 hours waiting in Minneapolis, and 9 hours waiting in Amsterdam. Sick. But all that kept running through my mind was how Braeden Udy used to get really excited about problems and just think of them as bigger adventures. Now my flight is a story worth telling! AND, on top of all that, there were actually some silver linings to the rain cloud that blew over my trip.

       1. I got to reprint my boarding passes at the airport (because my flights were changed) so now I have    legitimate boarding passes compared to the first ones I printed out home. These will be pasted into my journal. If I was cool and tech savvy I would scan in a picture of one for you. I love all three of them so much.

       2. I became very familiar with the Amsterdam airport. Next time I am there I will definitely make time to see the museum and maybe take an excursion through the city.

        3. I came into the UK at sunset. Beautiful. The first things I noticed where the smell of the sea, the breeze coming off it and the lovely contrast of pink sky with the green, rolling hills.

        4. I was going to Europe for Pete's sake. No complaining about delays.

        5. I can't remember anymore. But there were more.

Cardiff is a fun, bustling city but so Dirty. Capitalization was intentional. There is a serious problem with the rubbish retrieval system because every street is covered in trash. The bins aren't big enough and then seagulls and cats come and feast on the refuse. Gross.

We are staying in old row houses that were built originally for miners. (More to come on mining in Wales in later posts). These houses are old and dingy but let's face it, so was my old apartment. Honestly, I have more space here than I did in Centennial II. And I have a single room with a double bed. Here is a picture of the room I am staying in. I had to buy sheets so I picked bright colors from a limited selection. I like the irony of sleeping on sunshine.

Yes that is a map of Great Britain above my bed. I'm going to mark off all the places I visit like in those cliche movies. It's going to be great. Sorry I don't have more pictures. I'm too tired to go out and take some right now. Next post.

Sincerely,

Mariah