Greenwich and Oxford

Well, you've had to wait quite a while for my "surprise!" It's here finally. Last THURSDAY morning we took a tube to a boat and rode the boat on the Thames to Greenwich. It was the coolest boat ride!

Here we are about to sail under the Tower Bridge!

Haha, it's definitely a picture worth taking!

Sometimes, the boat would pick up serious speed. It was so thrilling to lean out and let my hair fly.

We arrived in Greenwich, did a little open-market shopping (those are the best. The one here had tons of homemade and antique things. LOVED it.), then headed up the path to the Royal Observatory.

Also known as the place where longitude is 0 degrees: The Prime Meridian. This is the line of people waiting to take the picture.

This is us taking the picture!!!

The museum to walk through was really interesting too. That night we went to a performance of The Sixteen (Harry Christophers) which was F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C. It was at the Royal Naval Academy Chapel or something.

We had the opportunity to sit in on their rehearsal and meet Harry Cristophers personally.

I have a fetish for majestic organs, and this one was no exception.

I really like this choral study abroad. In class the next week, we discussed the difference between the Tallis Scholars and the Sixteen. I personally liked the Sixteen better because the sopranos had a brighter, sharper sound. Also, the repertoire was much more exciting to listen to. In other words, I stayed awake the whole time...easily. (Recall I had a rough time with the Tallis Scholars.) We didn't take the boat back for the sake of time.

FRIDAY: we took a coach (not a bus, not a charter) to Oxford.

The country side was breathtaking.

When we arrived, we did a really neat thing. We split into groups and visited different schools. My group (the "music major group", obviously some of us were mis-classified) went to Headington Prep School for Girls. It was a private school complete with uniforms and wealth. We went to the music department building, which was really cool. All the rooms had names and dates of well-known composers. The way the building was designed, as the girls progress through the school the rooms the rooms they use have progressively modern composer names on the doors. The students were geniuses. It goes to show how far money can go. I could go on for hours about that experience. After we came back, we split into our separate colleges. I was in the BYU quartet for Wadham College. Heather and I discovered a beautiful garden courtyard at the college and had a fun photo shoot. I will not put those pictures on the blog. The rehearsal was alright; the choir wasn't fantastic but the church was beautiful!

We were tired on the charter back at 8pm. So we played games with cameras and faces. I will only put up one.

SATURDAY: We returned to Oxford, but it was a fun day instead of a work day. We shopped and toured. We all got matching Oxford hoodies.

We walked over to Christ Church College, whose hall and corridor was used in the filming of HARRY POTTER. Yes I was there. 

Pretty cool, huh? Now here's another touristy experience. We were in lovely Radcliffe Square, and talked about a church there, that one day C.S. Lewis walked out of and saw this:

...and this door. The golden guys on the side look exactly like Tumnus, and the lion on the door looks like Aslan. Yes, this is where C.S. Lewis received inspiration for The Chronicles of Narnia.

We went to evensong that night, then took the bus back to London. 

SUNDAY: We went to an LDS ward at Oxford and had a luncheon with the ward members afterward.

Then over to Oxford College for rehearsal and performance of our music. I could write tons about this day, but it would be a really really long blog entry. It was a neat experience being part of Evensong, and it was nice eating dinner afterwards in the hall. It was a fantastic weekend at Oxford, and I am so glad I had this experience!