For the Love of my Family

I'm struggling to find the motivation to write this post... but the fear of what emails might fill my inbox if I don't blog one day drives me on. ;)
Today was a WONDERFUL day! We were lucky to have Simon Berridge come speak to us all day at class. Simon is an awesome guy, I really was so impressed with him. Apparently he goes way back with Dr. Staheli, and we met him for the first time at the Sixteen concert we attended, of which he is a member of. He's the only LDS professional singer in England, and has been part of the Tallis Scholars, Polyphony, the BBC Singers, and many many other prominent choirs. He's a convert to the church as of 1985, and has quite the story to go along with it.
Apparently at this time he was going to school at the Royal Academy of Music and also working part-time as a choir member for St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. This was a sweet set-up because the choir members here get to live in a flat IN Windsor Castle!! How cool is that!? So yeah, once he joined the church they didn't really want him anymore. So he lost his job AND his place to live. Sad! Nonetheless, he remained strong and many other doors were opened for him. He carried such a great spirit with him and had so many inspiring stories, I really obtained a great admiration for him by the end of the day. I completely enjoyed every minute we spent with him!
We discussed so many things with him- he was so willing to answer any questions! One thing he talked about was how the British Choral tradition is SO based on sight singing that more often than not they don't internalize the music, they just produce it like a factory. He said that Harry Christophers (director of The Sixteen) is really the only person he's sung for that actually makes an effort to understand the music and shape the music according to the text and so forth, which is why he loves singing for The Sixteen so much. I found this really interesting because without internalizing the music, music means nothing to me! They have a completely different mindset over here...
He had us sing a little bit after he talked, which was really fun! I miss singing...

This afternoon we explored the clothing store we've heard so much about- Primark. Its this super hectic and crazy place full of really cheap clothes. When Caitlin and I went to try on clothes, there were probably 70 girls in line! RIDICULOUS. So we just parked in front of a mirror and tried on a bunch of clothes over our clothes. Haha, we were told to move by 2 different guys, so we just kept moving to different mirrors. ;) It was cool and I got a couple things, but way too crazy! It makes me glad we don't do the whole Black Friday thing...

Tonight I went to see the play WarHorse. Definitely my favorite show I've seen here. I was amazed at how moving it was, and how much it affected me. Its about a boy and his horse in WW1, but I don't really want to tell you anything else. You just have to come to London and see it!! Anyway, I was just really moved by the story and how much more I need to value my relationships with people. Also, I am just SO grateful that I haven't had to live through a huge war that has affected me so heavily. I was sitting there in between my good friends Matt and Logan, and was just so overcome with gratitude that we didn't have to go through this. There was a point in the play where this 19 year old boy was completely terrified about going to battle, and the whole time I just couldn't bear thinking about if that was Matt or Logan, or any of my guy friends standing there, shaking with fear as they were about to go to war and see things that nobody should have to. I don't like to think about it. Anyway, the play was absolutely fantastic, and I would DEFINITELY recommend it to everyone.

Well thats it for today! Sorry its kind of short (actually you're probably all relieved about that), and that there aren't any pictures (sorry Sarah), but hopefully it'll be better tomorrow! :)
Love you all!