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

Cache Valley with Kitty Katy Kat and La Reina Pearl Jensen

This weekend was absolutely terrific. Why? Two reasons.

1. I moved home.

 People don't understand how much I love my home. My mom is my best friend, I hardly fight with my siblings, I get to catch up with old friends, I can do my laundry for free, I can eat for free and Cache Valley is just one of the best, most beautiful places on the earth. See for yourself.

2. Lauryn and Katy came to visit. 

Brief background on these two: Lauryn is one of my oldest friends. We were best friends for 5th and 6th grade and kept in touch through junior high, high school, moving, and changing. Then, we roomed together freshman year. Basically we go way back. While my history with Katy is shorter, she is a very important friend as well. Katy was another roommate from Heritage Halls. When I need someone to laugh with I find Katy because no one does it louder or longer or more sincerely than she does.

While they were here we hiked the wind caves (from where the above picture was taken) and went to the gorgeous Logan temple. We also journeyed up to Bear Lake for pretty views and delicious raspberry shakes, watched a lot of girly movies (Never Say Never for the second time...I'm developing a mild case of Beiber Fever), and just enjoyed each other's company. Kitty Katy Kat, La Reina - You guys are the cheese to my macaroni.

Just a small note about this tree. It is the most sagacious conifer I have ever had the pleasure to lay eyes on. If Rafiki lived in Northern America, this tree would be his home.

Best,

Mariah

Titles are the Hardest Part

Dear Friend/Family/Stranger/Creeper,

I'm assuming you fall under one of those categories and if not I'm sorry for the unwelcoming salutation. Everyone is welcome to follow my blog (literally - hit the "Follow" button so I feel good about myself). However, I think I should warn you now that this is one of those "tales of my normal life for anyone who cares" blogs. So unless you actually know me, the following won't be very interesting and I suggest you creep on someone else. You have been warned.

Cheers,

Mariah

P.S. KGB - The awful font and glitter letters in the non-title are for you. I stink at titles.