Wales: Day 39 Best Day Of My Life - Part 2

I left you when Anna, Anders and Zoe took off to get food and meet everyone else for Wicked. They asked me about a hundred times if I would be ok by myself, if I knew where I was going, how to get there, not to talk to strangers, etc. etc. I'll admit, I was a little nervous. London is really big, and if I got lost and missed Phantom I'd have to throw myself in front of a tube train, so maybe it was best for me to just go sit outside the theatre until it started. But no. I was feeling independent and adventurous, and wanted to see Leicester Gardens and Piccadilly Circus on my own time.

I bid them farewell, plugged in my headphones and set about looking for something to catch my interest. There is so much to see that it really isn't hard to get completely wrapped up in a matter of seconds. I checked out touristy little shops (I got a pair of London Underground boxers, suckas!), used book stores, little art galleries and any other stores or attractions that caught my eye. I loved it. I was in a huge city, on my own, 20 years old and completely confident in my ability to function and enjoy myself.



Around 6:15 I walked down to Her Majesty's Theatre to pick up my ticket. I couldn't be risking anything here. You guys know how important this is to me. Once I had it in hand, I realized how hungry I was, and walked down to Piccadilly Circus to hit the Tesco Metro. I got a Diet Coke and some dried mangoes, because nothing else looked good. I honestly think I was giving myself crazy anticipation anxiety about Phantom. I was so jittery. I think I checked my bag for my ticket every 30 seconds. Once I had my food I went and hung out in the square on the steps of the Statue of Eros. Legend has it that if you stay at the fountain for at least 1 hour you are guaranteed to see someone you know. We also heard that since Eros is the god of love, throwing coins in the fountain would bring you true love or something cliched and gay like that. Anyways. I hung out here people watching and getting progressively pumped up for Phantom for half an hour or so.



Around 7 I headed back to the theatre to try to catch Talia & Kelsey, or Kayla and her mom who were all going to be in the same showing as me. By 7:15 I hadn't seen them, so I headed in. I HEADED IN. Finally. To be seated. To see Phantom. The only thing I've ever really wanted to do before I died. It was surreal. I bought a program and a shirt (completely unashamed of my nerdiness at this point) and by the time I made it to my seat I was STRAIGHT TRIPPIN.

Seriously, I can't remember ever feeling like that. Who knows if I'll ever feel it again? I was jumpy and fidgety, which is not like me at all. My entire being seemed oriented towards the the stage, every cell in my body was yearning to hear the first notes of the overture. My seat was actually really good. I paid a little more for it, but obviously it's worth it to me. I had a seat just off center on the first balcony, and my view was great. (The last photo is dark but you can barely see the stage and the chandelier covered in a canvas.)


The lights went dim. Instantly my heart started to pound. I felt the adrenaline dump in my system and my heart battered away at my rib cage, to the point that I almost couldn't sit any longer. As the first notes rose out of the pit, I honestly felt my heart and soul kind of seize up. I really was losing control of my body. The first scene, the auction, is very quiet, but when the chandelier lights up and the orchestra starts blaring the theme I completely fell to pieces. I was CRYING. Crying you guys. I could barely breathe. I have never been so emotionally moved in my life. I highly doubt the ability of anything else to ever do that for me again. This really nice lady sitting next to me I'm sure thought I was crazy. Before it started we'd been chatting (she's a Kiwi - a person from New Zealand), and I communicated to her how much Phantom meant to me and how crazy I was about it. So maybe she got it. I don't know.


Phantom was amazing. I mean, the music speaks (sings?) for itself. One thing the movie can never duplicate though is the fantastic use of props and scenery. The decor for the underground lair, the boats and candles, was breathtaking. I often felt like I didn't know where to look because there was just so much that I wanted to drink in.


My heart didn't stop pounding the entire time. Masquerade and Music of the Night were way better Broadway-style. Each person was perfect for their role. The orchestra sounded fantastic. The props, as mentioned, were elaborate and fascinating. The entire experience filled me, lifted me, raised the dead in me. It was honestly one of the high points of my life. As I walked out of the theatre, elated, I had a sad moment of wonder.

Will I ever top this? What else do I have to live for? I guess that remains to be seen.


I quickly jogged down to the tube station, hopped on the train to Paddington Station (again, by myself. Loving it.), and caught the train with minutes to spare. I was delirious. Everything I've ever wanted came true that day. Anyone who knew me in 9th grade has a very good perception of what it meant to me. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Even the anxiety of late night tube riding by myself, with the risk of missing the train back to Cardiff couldn't keep the bounce out of my step. I was exhausted on the train ride home, dozing in and out of Phantom dreams. Unfortunately we had to walk home at 1 in the morning, with plenty of "hen parties" and gross drunk Cardiff men downtown, but when I crashed into bed around 2 am in my Phantom t-shirt, I was content knowing that Phantom had exceeded my expectations and breathed new life into me.

Wales: Day 35 Pres(ton) Forward Saints

Saturday, August 7 might have been the worst day on record for the Welsh 2010 study abroad. But it was still pretty good. Possibly the most ridiculous day we had, so naturally tons of great jokes came out of the day's journey.

First of all, we woke up exhausted. Probably the most tired I'd been on the trip. We'd been sleeping in hostels for a week, walking and running around like crazy, and even though we didn't have Tom's hyperactive structure, we really ended up walking, running and dealing with more stress in general because we didn't have him. Peeling myself out of that uncomfortable little bunk was a challenge, but I told myself "Ok. I just have to get through my tour of Preston and soon we'll be 'home' and I can finally get some rest."

Now, I'll admit. I was not in the best of spirits and attitudes this morning. I am usually very positive, regardless of my situation. I was extremely tired, injured, sick of driving around in a cramped van (even more cramped because we had to pile everyone's luggage in around us, see?), sick of being with people 24/7 (I need to have my private room. Really.), and feeling sick from eating nothing but Tesco food.



And embarrassing confession. I actually have human feelings. This whole time I hadn't really MISSED people. I was having a great time, the time of my life even. I was making great friends, laughing and loving every day. I missed my friends and family in the sense that I'd get excited thinking about seeing them again, but I never really got an aching, MISSING feeling before. Well. I woke up MISSING. The travel and hostel situation had made it difficult for me to stay as current as I had been on internet communication, and there were developing situations that were unduly concerning me. My baby sister was moving out soon and I started to feel weird about that. I was only going to have a couple weeks with one of my best friends when I got home. But the strangest was that someone I thought I wouldn't see until September was actually in Provo at the time. To stay, I hoped, but I wasn't sure. I had been totally solid, prepared for September, but here I was, tired, nothing left but a free week in Cardiff, realizing this person was home and soon I would be too. A lot of my patience and resolve crumbled to leave me once again excited, but now also anxious to get home.

We were supposed to leave at 8, but half of the van thought we were leaving at 9, so we started off on a good note. Irritated and running late, we finally hit the road. Sick of the front seat, I transferred to the back of the van so I could listen to my ipod and brood in privacy. Turns out. There's more than one "Preston" on our Gypsy. Translation: We spent over an hour driving around the Yorkshire countryside aimlessly. Now that is some beautiful countryside, and if I have a windowseat and my ipod I actually really love long drives. But not when all any of us wanted was to get "home."

The rest of the day was an equal mess. By the time we reached Preston, everyone was stir crazy and we all had to use the bathroom, so we pulled into Tesco. After using the bathrooms, we reluctantly stuffed ourselves back into the vans and ended up driving around the city, looking for who knows what. We finally park on this crowded, winding street and walk a ways to a park. We split into our cohorts and that's where we gave our tour presentations. That took approximately 3 minutes and then one of our adult leaders, Susan, jumped in with her plethora of British Church history knowledge, which was great because I was completely underprepared. Whatever, I was just trying to get it over with, and it was fairly painless. It went like this "Wilford Woodruff and Dan Jones were both AWESOME and the Church is true."

A couple people expressed interest in seeing the River Ribble, where Heber C. Kimball baptized the early converts in Great Britain. Of course most of us were hoping to skip this step and just get food and go home, but the adults felt bad that we hadn't actually seen anything in Preston, so we went. After driving around for half an hour or so, we found a random dead end to park in (I could write a blog post dedicated solely to our parking practices) and walked a mile or so to the River. There was all this construction, so we couldn't even get to the bridge that the Church built. We walked through mud clear down to this park where some clowns were putting on a puppet show for kids (which was the best part of the day, incidentally), and then turned around and walked back. At this point we were starving. But we were so sick of eating the pre-packaged sandwiches, crackers and sodas from convenience stores, so we were begging to go somewhere with a food court or restaurants. Unfortunately Preston has no such thing, so we found ourselves once again at Tesco.

Anders was very cautious parking the van because it is HUGE, so he'd always park away from cars to have more room. The parking lot wasn't very full, but Anders parked really far away from the nearest car, and as a result we were almost in the parking lot for the building next door. Everyone was tired, irritated, hungry and sick of meaningless transportation. We pull in, stop and no one even moves. Then suddenly, from the back of the van, a deadpan voice blurts out -

"Let's park further awayyyyyyyyy....." - Jessica Sloan

I laughed harder, longer, and more intensely than I have in a long, LONG time. Tears streaming down my face, I struggled to catch my breath. When we all finally composed ourselves, we clambered out of the van and walked the 2 miles of parking lot into Tesco. I went with my standard baguette, hummus, Dairy Milk chocolate and crappy Diet Coke. Feeling a little better we hung out and ate raspberries off the bushes in the parking lot (Our best idea? Probably not. We can't be held accountable for the decisions we made that day.) and tried to flush the bad experiences and irritation of the day.

Once again we were taunted with the prospect of finally heading home. We were only 15 minutes away from the Preston Chorley Temple, never mind it was 15 minutes out of the way. I really didn't mind though, because I love temples and it's a good opportunity to see one. Unfortunately the grounds were closed, but we got to see pretty close anyways.



Finally we hit the road. This ended up being one of my favorite van rides ever. Everyone was bugged and tired, so we all crashed. I almost never slept in the van (well, at all, really. I was known for being the one who was perpetually awake), but I just passed out for half the drive. Once everyone had napped, we were all up and going. We took off the headrests and all of the fun people in the back with us congregated and talked. We played the A-Z movie game where you have to name as many movies that start with the letter A and then move on through the alphabet. We swapped our favorite sound bites and catchphrases from the trip and lamented that this would be our last real day of touring and van-riding.

I never thought I'd be happy to see Penny Lane. But I was. Instead of going to bed, I stayed up super late talking with everyone online. In one week I'd be in transit to Salt Lake City! I was mildly sad about my study abroad experience basically being over, but I finally felt ready to come home.