This weekend was a simple but good weekend.
Friday we went to dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant (nothing notable, in fact the food really was not all that good).
Saturday our ward chartered a bus to the temple for ward temple day. One of Michelle's MBA friends, Melinda Wells, is here in London with her company doing an international rotation, similar to what Michelle is doing with Amex. Another MBA friend from the year just behind us, Kayce Harris, was visiting this week as well. They had wanted to go to the temple Saturday, also, so we invited them to join us on the bus. The temple is beautiful inside, and out. We had a really nice session, ate lunch in the cafeteria, and walked the beautiful grounds. The rumor was that there are strawberry patches on the temple grounds. We were hopeful we'd be able to indulge for an afternoon treat, but no luck - we couldn't find them.
Sunday we had a friend from our old singles ward over for dinner. We ate roast and reminisced about how subtly different things are here in London. It was nice to be with a fellow American who just understood!
From the left, Michelle, Melinda, and Kayce
From the left, DJ and Michelle ;)
Walking paths at the temple in search of strawberries...
I heard the sword of laban is hidden in the spires of the Salt Lake temple. Yup. My false rumor's better than yours!
ReplyDeleteJesse, you totally win! :)
DeleteThere's something very "Jane Austen" about all that green. How fun to walk around enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteDifferences I noticed between the U.S. and England when I was there:
1. Very few water fountains.
2. Very few escalators or elevators.
3. People were much more comfortable with long walks there. "Walking distance" in England was a lot longer than it would be in Salt Lake City.
4. The public transport was great. You did not need a car in London.
5. Stores shut down a lot earlier. Clearly, running a store was not the be-all and end-all of life. If you needed to buy something, you needed to buy it when it was convenient for the shopkeeper.
Has any of this changed?
Yes, a lot of that is still the same. Very true, not many water fountains - we always try to bring water with us. I think you see more elevators ("lifts") and escalators here now, though. People definitely walk more - I know we do, and I love it! You totally don't need a car. We do bus and tube and can get anywhere easily. Shops in London stay open late enough, but we have noticed when we are outside of London things close a lot earlier and it always surprises us! The other thing is, they don't care if they have a potential customer if it's time to close - don't need to make one more sale, just need to go home!
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