Field Trip in Italy

Last Wednesday at 6:30AM five of us girls took off to Venice for our backpacking through Italy adventure. Now being back and thinking about all of the paintings and sculpture we saw, I feel that all of my history and humanities classes prepared me for what I saw this trip. Here is a quick play by play of all of humanities highlights of our trip.

Day One: Venice
St. Marks Square, which includes Doge's Palace and the Basilica's campanile.

Day 2 Florence.
We started off in Florence in the Academia to see the David!! Next was the Uffizi where we saw paintings including the Birth of Venus and Martin Luther.


Day 3 Rome
Our first day in Rome we spent exploring the history of the Roman Empire. The first thing we did was go to the Coliseum. After the Coliseum we made our way across the street to Palatine Hill and the Form. I could not help but think what it would have been like to live in Rome 2,000 years ago when the Coliseum was still white marble with statues in every window. We finished the day visiting Capital Hill, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. The Trevi Fountain we ended up visiting 3 times by the end of our two-day trip, needless to say we liked it and the surrounding atmosphere.


Day 4 Vatican city

Probably the highlight of the Vatican City, especially from the humanities point of view, the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. AMAZING! We are learning about “The Creation of Adam” in our humanities 202 class. It is an amazing painting but unreal to see live!! In the Vatican we also saw The School of Athens by Raphael, which we are also studying in our 202 classes.

Preston or Priest's Town

We started off our tour in Preston where it was way colder than I imagined. Peter Fagg (our guide) took us to an exhibit of what Preston looked like in 1827. I learned how the cotton industry was the main industry at the time. Lancaster had the largest cotton factory in all of England. It consisted of 42 mills in working operation. A large majority of the first converts worked in these Mills. Probably one of the coolest things we saw was the Oblique where the first Missionaries of the Church preached, including President Gordon B. Hinckley. It was so cool to see that and picture President Hinckley standing there in 1933 as a scared little boy preaching to the town of Preston, England.
We walked by the dental office of Brigham young and Joseph Smith. Their dentist was one of the first to record the First Vision and recorded that Jesus Christ had blue eyes and that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father were dressed in white robes.
On Wilfred Street lies the house where the first group of missionaries lived when they first arrived in England. This is the house where the evil spirits appeared. After Joseph Smith learned of this he said that he knew the Gospel was about to take root.
Avenham Park is not only beautiful but it is a very important part of England’s church history. The Japanese gardens were shown of Sister Hinckley walking in them. The video played at her funeral. The park is also home to the Ribble River where the 8 saints were baptized during the first mission. Thousands gathered to watch these new members of the church be baptized.
The Church received the nickname the dippers for the way they baptized. I really liked the oak tree that was a dedication to all missionaries that have served, are serving and that will ever serve.
We also learned about Wilfred Woodruff's fly-fished and is said to have made fly fishing large in the West.
We visited the Church of St. Wilfred. The minister of the Church at the time of Heber C. Kimball’s mission appeared in Kimball’s dream. This dream was about the good field that was Britain and the Church of England which was the lost crop. The bull stomping on the good crop represented the Church of England.

Man vs. Wild


I really liked these photos because it showed man blending in with nature. Fountains Abbey almost amplified the landscape surrounding. The contrast between the blue sky and the green grass the building is the perfect color that blends in with the landscape to contrast.

The Water Effect.


The lake is such a peaceful scene, with the calm water and green mountains fading off in the background. The boats stacked on the sun and the dock heading out onto the lake. This is showing man’s desire to be a part of nature. The other thing that I like about these photos it how the mountains draw your eye in this swerving shape out into the distance.

Pathways.





In our humanities class we talked about how different aspects of nature, such as in this case the river, naturally lead your eye to view different aspects of the picture. These photographs really lead your eye to different angles of the landscape, such as fountains abbey in the distance or even just wondering what is in the distance.

As You Like It

In my humanities 202 and English 382 class we had to read William Shakespeare's play, "As You Like It". This past Monday we had the chance to go see the play. In my English 382 class we had to describe the ways a certain scene could be depicted and then analyze the way the scene was depicted. Here are parts of my assignment:

In act one scene two of As You Like It by William Shakespeare there is a conversation-taking place between Celia and Rosalind. Celia is asking her cousin to be happy and not mad at her for her father’s actions of banishing and replacing her father the duke. I thought that this scene could take place in a couple of different ways. One way I imagined is were the girls would be sitting in drawing type room playing cards, lounging on the furniture, or both preoccupied with some sort of project at different areas of the room. Another scenario that could occur is one that takes place outside. Celica and Rosalind could be talking while walking to town, around the town, or just on a walk around the gardens. Another aspect that can be portrayed differently in this scene is how happy Rosalind is portraying herself to be. I picture Rosalind to be pretty happy, and the only Celia can tell is because they our soul mates. I picture Rosalind’s attitude to be very nice and friendly with her strong side coming out in front of those the is close to.



We saw “As you like it” as a group on Monday the 14th of September in the Globe Theater at 7:30pm. What I liked about the play was the way the character Celia was portrayed. Her character was very humorous and edged the crowd on. The actress her played Celia did a very good job of portraying her opinions through her facial expressions.



How act one scene two was portrayed was differently then I imagined it to be presented. I already mentioned how Celia was more humorous than I imagined, which was very well played because it made cheering Rosalind up more believable. Celia playing more of a comedic role this early on portrayed her to be more of a dominant personality then I pictured her as. They presented the scene with Celia almost chasing after to Rosalind in order to talk to her and discuss what had occurred. Rosalind also seemed extremely sad. In the scene she states that she is “happier than she feels”. I took that as she would play up being happy and inside be moping. However, she is moppy on the outside and more depressed than imagined on the inside.

Southall

Last Friday went down to a town outside of London called Southall. At Southall we went to the Sikh's Temple. In the temple we had to cover up our hair with our scarves and we could not wear shoes inside the temple. Once we got inside the Temple we went straight to their main worship room. We were told before we entered the room not to turn our backs to the scriptures. We walked in their was a line to get to bow in front of the scriptures and donate money. Everyone would give money and then bow down in front of the scriptures. All of us girls did not know what to do when we got to the front so we placed in twenty pence and then half way bowed and started heading back to our seats. I do not know how right or wrong that was but we thought it would be respectful for being in their temple. When walked backwards (not to face against the scriptures) was kind of awkward because people were scattered everywhere and it was a bob and weave not to trip over anyone. My friend Emmy tripped, but that is why we love her! Haha We sat and listened to the prayers for a while and then left to do some more learning.




One thing that is cool about the Sihk temple is that they provide a free meal to anyone that needs a meal. Our professor told us what a big impact this has made in India for those who are starving on the streets and could come in to the temple and receive a free meal. How do they pay for this? They pay a tithing. There are a lot of unusually similarities to the LDS church. For example the tithing that they pay, and the garments they wear. Pretty cool huh? We had a man from the church come and speak to us. One thing that stood out to me was that he said they do not think of themselves as a religion they think of their beliefs as a way of life. It was an interesting way to put it. That the way they worship their God is a way or part of their life. Another interesting thing is that they always have five things on them, their: garments, bangle that represents eternal life, knife, hair ( which they do not cut because they believe it is a gift from God and that they sould love their hair and never cut hi) and a comb. I enjoyed this experience very much, their a similarities in our beliefs and their our differences; however, when you were at the Sikh Temple you could tell of their sincerity in their beliefs and desire to be good.



After we went to the Hindu temple, we did not really have anyone describe to us what they believe except for this old man. He did not speak very good English so I think that he pronounced the spelling wrong because I am even more confused on what they believe in.

Here on some other fun things we did in Southall.

We got some magic corn! It was on our list of things to try. We were stopped at one of the stands for a while debating if we should split some and everytime anyone walked buy he would raise the lid to give them a smell of the corn and then he would raise his eyebrows and give this little wave like you want? haha it was classic.



We got hena!

Canterbury for my religion or culture class... who knows.

Last Wednesday the 9th our group took a field trip to Canterbury, specifically the Canterbury Cathedral. We split our 40 girls up into groups of ten and learned all about the Cathedral, well Thomas Becket and the Cathedral.



When we first walked into the Cathedral the Archbishop came over the loud speaker and asked us to join him in prayer. On a religious stand point, I kept thinking yes this is a beautiful prayer, and yes it does have good things to pray for, but I am so thankful for our Mormon concept of prayer and the relationship it gives us with our Heavenly Father, to be able to personally pray to Him.





When expanding the Cathedral, the church ran out of money to finish. The monks decided to ask the wealthy families of the church in England to donate money and in return they would place their family emblem on the ceiling. Prince of Wales emblem is up on the ceiling in the blue.





The story of Thomas Becket. What we learned for most of our trip is the story of Thomas Becket and his impact on the Church of England. For those of you who don't know, here is my quick story; I might leave a few things out because I am just going off what we saw at the cathedral. King Henry chose Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury because of their close family relationship and believed that with Becket as the Archbishop Becket would favor the king and his wishes. The monks did not like Becket when he was put in as the Archbishop because he was not a monk before receiving this calling. Once as the Archbishop Becket sided with the monks. When King Henry found his out he was very upset and Becket ended up fleeing to France to escape. He ended up coming back to England. One night in 1170 the King was going off on a rampage about Thomas Becket and said something like I want to kill him, something along those lines. Then 4 guards over heard and came to the cathedral and killed him. This was a very abbreviated story and most of what I learned it how he died. Where the guards stormed in, where he was, etc. It was really cool/crazy to be standing were it all took place. I loved it, and our tour guide Brian for teaching us everything!

Seats of Power Walk

On September 5th, 2009 around 2pm around ten of us girls headed out for our Seats of Power Walk. Since it is hard to stick together in such a large group Emmy, Kristen, Abby and I split off and all headed towards the tube to start our adventure. We got on the tube at Notting Hill Gate and took the circle line to Westminster. Once we got off on Westminster and headed along the Victorian Embankment. Here is what we saw!



The first statues that really grabbed our eyes were these two memorials for those who fought during The Battle of Britain. I especially liked all of the detail that was put into these memorials. It makes you look back and see all that these men went through.



In our first fireside we had a Bishop come speak to us about the culture differences between the USA and London. One of the things he mentioned is the difference between big and old. He claimed that the United States prides themselves on the size, how big everything is (which I am not denying that at all). He did however claim that London does not pride itself not on the size but how old everything is. This is all true yes, but after seeing the parliament buildings on Whitehall I do have to say that London does have some pretty big old buildings. My pictures do not really capture how large they are but they are still beautiful to look at.


Queen Mary's Steps built for her by King Henry VIII so she could have a place to look out at the Thames.



William Tyndale, the man who translated the bible into modern English.



The Horse guards and their parade ground.




Hello Mr. Prime Minster, this is the residents of the Prime MInister. 10 Downing Street. The iron gate was added by Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister.



We saw many more sites, some building which I new were significant to the political history of London, we just got to turned around to follow our guide book. Go figure. Other sites I recognized such as the Buckingham palace, which I loved. I kept picturing what it would have been like to come here during Princess Diana's death and see the thousands of people and flowers piled together.

I loved this walk because where we live has the urban feel of London. This walk should the classy, history of London which I love, and I got to see how closely connected everything in this city is.