Hello Lamp Post, Whatcha Knowin?

This is the Apollo Victoria Theater right outside of the Victoria Station - a very classy theater. I thought it looked nice at night. Okay, so I took the picture after I watched the musical, Wicked, currently running here. I bought tickets on Monday morning and Emma and I sat in the front row. What a show! London is great just for that, there are so many musicals to see! We all saw another play, 'The Woman in Black,' on Saturday night - this would be a good one for a high school drama class. This next picture is the Natural History Museum. We stayed at a hostel just down the street from here, and I spent much of my Sunday Afternoon looking at dinosaur bones and admiring this awesome building. I felt like a kid again, seeing all the dinosaurs I used to have play figures of. Tri-ceratops, Allisaurus, Stegasaurus... I can't help but think of whether they really lived or where they came from. Anyway, on to the next picture.

We went to the Tower Bridge at night - Tiffany took this amazing picture. It took us hours to figure out which tube station we had to go to to see it, but we finally made it and it was well worth the trip. This isn't the London Bridge, by the way, it's the tower bridge, that is an important distinction. Walking around London at night is great - especially with all the lights on the Thames. By the time we were ready to go back, we had to take a bus because the underground was no longer running. It was a long night. This next shot is me and Buckingham Palace. We went on Tuesday morning for the changing of the guard - it's worth going to see at some point, and having done years of marching band I appreciated the diffulty of marching in uniform and playing an instrument. This was the last thing I did in London before heading off to Oxford to spend the day with Christoph.

London!!

Yes, this is me and Big Ben - apparently Big Ben is is the bell, by the way, and not the clock. Tiffany told us that. Interesting. I finally made it to London, the city of... anyhow, we had a great trip. Rich, Tiff, Emma and I, as well as Rich's cousin and our friend Sarah spent a few days. I have been to London once before with my older brother, Aaron, back in the spring of 2003. I only spent a day here though, and have been wanting to come back ever since. That day was well spent - I visited the Cabinet war rooms and learned more about one of my heros, Winston Churchill. London, though, was only a passing memory, and now I have experienced much more of the city. Samual Johnson said, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." Well, this may not be true, but I could certainly spend a lot more time in this city. Here are some of the highlights.


First and foremost, we happened upon the most amazing part of London - not Big Ben, not Buckingham palace... but the street with the Korean restaurants on it!!! For those interested, it is located just off the Tottenham Court Tube station. The six of us all went there on Monday night for a great meal - I have been craving Korean food for months, and it was great to share it with good company. (Okay, so this was not really THE highlight of the trip, and there are probably tons of better restaurants here, but it certainly was special.)
I mentioned earlier that Churchill is a hero of mine. I spent a whole semester in high school researching his speeches and his influence on the people of Britain during World War II, and I came to respect him for the powerful role he played in defending Britain and the west. So, when I saw his statue on the square outside Westminster, I had to stop and just enjoy the moment. I love this statue - it portray's Churchill's defiance and persistance. Being in London, a place where so many great men have toiled and earned recognition, I couldn't help but wonder if I am capable of such works. Well, whatever the case, I am proud to have stood in Churchill's shadow. At Westminster square, we also walked along the Thames and attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Oh, and the fact that Tesco has a wonderful express shop there is worth mentioning. A perfect spot for cheap, hungry student travelers.

Oxford

I spent a day at the University of Oxford - here I am at Christ's Church College. My first missinoary companion in South Korea and good friend, Christoph Luschin, recently graduated from BYU in the spring, and is currently studying history in the masters program at Oxford. I went to visit for the day and loved the feel of one of the oldest 'College Towns' on the globe.
Christoph and I attended 'Formal Hall' in the evening. Americans who have seen the Harry Potter films will know this - every night a dinner is served at the individual colleges, with students seated at long tables and professors dining at the front of the hall. We enjoyed a good meal and some good conversation with some of the other students. I tried on Christoph's robes and bow tie that Oxford students wear for the matriculation ceremonies. Below is a picture of a local pub where certain famous literary figures would 'hand out' and discuss their novels. Parts of Oxford still feel medieval, and it was a memorable experience to visit one of the most enduring educational institutions in the world.

Glasgow

This is the SNP Deputy Leader Nichola Sturgeon; she is second in command, next to Party Leader Alex Salmond. She is an MSP for Glasgow and acts as the party's spokeswoman at Holyrood. So, during First Minister's Questions, she drills Jack McConnell and usually does a brilliant job. This picture was taken in Glasgow - us four interns went to a photo shoot! Politicians here are trying to adapt to new technology, with podcasts generating a lot of interest. Most politicians are still a little uncertain how to use such things as podcasts and online video sites to their advantage. I do not think any of the pictures the photographer took made it into the papers here, but it was fun to be the 'young, hip' people. The trip to Glasgow was well worth it; we spent the afternoon there, did some shopping, and then stopped at Linlithglow Palace on the way back.

The above picture shows the First Minister, Jack McConnell, and the Queen. Mr McConnell is the subject of a lot of scrutiny from the SNP, which hopes to replace him after the next election with their own party leader. In the UK, the press is required by law to give equal coverage to all political parties - I figured, to be fair, I ought to include a bit about Labour.

The Highlands

Here I am at Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye in the Western Highlands. This place is one of the most scenic I places I have been - it ranks up there with the Swiss Alps, the Blue Ridge Mountains in the east and the rough beauty of the Rockies in Utah. This part of Scotland probably has more sheep than people, which helps keep it clean and clear!
The guys slept in this tent from tesco - yes, we camped in the highlands, even though everyone said we were crazy. It rained all night, but tesco didn't let us down and kept us (relatively) dry. After spending the morning on Skye, we drove out to see Eilean Donan Castle just inside the mainland. This castle is small but so picturesque. It was rebuilt only in the last century after it was leveled by a naval bombardment, and people still rent rooms and live here.

What is all the hype around Lochness? It is large, deep, and fun to drive around, but I am amazed at the amount of hype that surrounds this place because of the legend of the monster. This is a picture of Urquart Castle below, which gives does not allow tourist in past 3:45 pm. We were needless to say a little upset about that, but that was the only disappointment of the trip.

Preston Temple Trip

I spent a Saturday traveling with the other churchgoers here in Edinburgh to visit the Preston England Latter-day Saint temple. This temple building was completed and dedicated in 1998. The Edinburgh Ward visits the temple as a ward regularly. After a long bus ride, I spent the afternoon in the temple and then we drove back to Edinburgh. The temple itself is simple and beautiful, as the pictures show. I'm sure you could find some more pictures of temples and information about them at either of these websites: www.lds.org or www.mormon.org. We also had fun company on the bus - we four interns sat at the back of the bus with the young people from the Ward.

Stirling

We made a day trip out of Stirling on October 16. We drove up on saturday morning - of course not getting out as early as expected, but it was quite a relaxed and enjoyable trip. A bit about William Wallace - when people in Scotland talk about heros and admirable historical figures, William Wallace comes up frequently, along with Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi, in fact.
This is the William Wallace Monument. It was completed in 1861 and has stood since as a memorial for the great Scottish patriot. It is a must see. I was struck by the nationalistic feel of the monument itself. It is never anti-English, but most of the quotes and the displays are very pro-Scottish. As you climb the narrow, circular staircase, you can enter a room every fifty or so steps that exhibits some aspect of the history surrounding Wallace, Scotland, and other Scots heros, such as Robert Burns, John Knox and Robert the Bruce.

Rich and I fighting with our headsets at the top.

We also visited the battlefield at Bannockburn, where the Scots delievered a most humiliating defeat to the English Army back in the 14th century. Robert the Bruce, shown above in the statue, led the Scottish army. The field itself was quite serene, with the mid-morning sun shining clearly above the dew covered grass. It is hard to imagine a battle of such magnitude taking place here.

Twirling, Twirling, Twirling toward Independence

Here we are at the SNP Press and
Research office inside the Parliament Building. This is where the press officers keep track of the media coverage the party gets, set up interviews, and get quotes to the newspapers. The press here in the UK is required by law to give equal coverage to all political parties; most political articles have quotes from both Labour and the main opposition party, the SNP. I worked in this office for the first few weeks of the internship, then moved to the SNP Headquarters office on MacDonald Road. Here I have been working on policy briefs for Mhairi Hunter, who is the manager over the party's policy division. It's been good to work at both locations, as I've had experience with both the media and public image of the party, and the policy side HQ.
Rich, Nichole, John Fellows, Liz, and John. John Fellows is our boss. He works mostly at the Press Office, but he bikes to and from parliament and headquarters, so Rich and I see him a couple times a week. He is an important figure to the party and puts in a lot of time - most of the employees, we've noticed, work very long hours. He's very busy, but he is approachable and has been helpful on some of the briefs I have been writing. This next bit has nothing to do with work - John has been recently engaged and will be married next November. Maybe some future interns will get to attend the wedding?

This is us four interns with MSP Brian Adam. Mr Adam hails from Aberdeen, and is th shadow deputy transport minister for the SNP. He is also LDS! He has been helpful, especially during the first few weeks. In fact, he made sure we got our security passes quickly - otherwise we would have gotten them in December, right before we left, like other interns have had to do. This picture was taken at the party conference - Nichole finally got her Scottish Flag, aka Saltire, and Rich is giving a 'thumbs-up' for independence.