The Netherlands and Belgium

This past week I spent a couple days in The Netherlands and a day in Belgium.  This quick trip was inspired by a dream I had a couple weeks ago of eating Belgium waffles, so I decided as soon as I was done with my dissertation I would go to Belgium and eat one.  I also recently found out that there was a temple in The Hague, Netherlands, and I really wanted to go see it.  When I was little, I decided that I wanted to see every temple in the world, which back that was a little more possible.  Although now it's not likely I'll reach that goal, I'd still like to see as many as possible, and this temple was #25 out of 144 that I've been able to see.
My first day I flew into Amsterdam, but I only had 1/2 hour to walk around the city.  I'm not going to lie, I wasn't uber impressed.  I've heard so many people say how much they loved Amsterdam, but it just seemed like a normal big city to me.  After that I went to see De Haar Castle.

Day #2 was my favorite.  In the morning I went to Keukenhof, a big flower garden that is only open 2 months every year.  It was so beautiful!  There were so many different colors!

In the afternoon I went to the temple and that was so lovely.  The people there were so nice and even though it was a really small temple, it was very busy!

On my last day I went to Belgium.  There I discovered the best snack for strolling the city:  chocolate covered strawberries!  I did end up having the waffle that inspired the trip, but I didn't like it!  Belgium was nice to stroll around, a very pretty city.  I also went to a musical instrument museum, which was fun because it had instruments from all over the world and from all different eras, and they gave you headphones so you could listen to what these instruments actually sounded like when playing a song.  There were so many fun and beautiful sounds, but maybe this little flute was my favorite.  I also spent a bit of time in an art museum, and these are the pieces I liked best from what I saw.

Jousting at Blenheim

Today I got to go to a Jousting Tournament at Blenheim Palace!  It maybe was geared more for little kids...but I had fun too! :)  They did a few different things.  They warmed up spearing wooded dummies, then jousted with each other.  They also had some sword fighting and then had to put their lance through tiny rings.  Here are the pics!  It's definitely quite difficult to take a really good picture while the jousting was going on, but I think I got an okay few.

Some Smallish Oxford Adventures

I don't think I've written anything since I've been back in Oxford.  It's nice being back in Europe.  The weather is even mostly nice, so that's been exceedingly lovely!  I've mostly been focusing on writing my dissertation, so I haven't done any traveling or had any really big adventures or anything.  My writing has been going well though, and I am all on target to turn in my dissertation on May 6th!  My dissertation isn't actually due until the very end of May, 2 days before I start my last placement, and I didn't think 2 days was a long enough break, so I previously decided to turn in my dissertation as early as possible to give me some time to play in May.  May 6th seemed like a lucky day, so that's what I chose for my personal deadline.  Then I'll celebrate all I want after, and start having adventures again, and perhaps do a little traveling.  Switzerland seems to be calling to me.....

Luckily, as my writing is going well so far, I have had the chance to do a couple of little fun things around the city.  A couple weeks ago the Russian Ballet was on tour and stopped by Oxford and did a performance of Swan Lake, which I adored!  They were so good!!

Last week the parents of an old roommate were passing through Oxford, and I took them to tour Christ Church College, which I had actually not been in yet.  Unfortunately the Great Hall was closed for renovations, so we didn't get to see that.

St. Mary's Church, not part of Christ Church College

We've recently got some sister missionaries in our ward, and I've been able to have the chance to go out with them about once a week to help teach or find people to teach, and that has been really good too.  It helps me keep things in perspective and not get too bogged down by all the writing I am doing!  I have LOVED being back at teaching seminary too.  I missed those kids so much!

On a not so productive note, I discovered a new (to me) TV show, Once Upon A Time, which I have become enthralled with.  It's all about fairy tales and princesses and princes and true love and it's all so very distracting when one is trying to write a dissertation....I've definitely had to make rules that I can't watch an episode until I have done all of my work for the day!!

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

This book is without a doubt the most phenomenal book I have ever read.  It was so different and so fresh and so real.  It's sort of a hard book to recommend, seeing as how it is like a companion novella to a series, and if you haven't read any of the series (the Name of the Wind series, by Patrick Rothfuss, also among my most favorite books ever read), this book could be really confusing.  But I love this book, even in it's confusion.  It is poetic and beautiful and true.  The author claims it is a story about written by a broken person, about a broken person, for broken people.  Maybe that is why I love it so much, because I am broken and this story speaks to my very soul.  But after reading this book, I begin to wonder, why would anyone want to live a different sort of life?  Perhaps it is broken, but it is beautiful.

This book gives us a glimpse of a week in the life of one character, Auri.  Auri is a young woman who for all intents and purposes is homeless and living in abandoned underground buildings in a bustling University city.  In general, she interacts with no one, and is awake and active at night when the rest of the world is asleep.  She is described as broken, and indeed, broken she is.  But oh how she is marvelous.  Her whole world, her whole life, is focused on making sure everything is in it's proper place, that everything is content and happy.  She can sense feelings of inanimate objects and will move around her large underground home and move things around each day to make sure everything is content and in it's proper place.  Her entire focus is outward, she never takes anything selfishly.  For example, at one point she discovers a new room in her underground world which contains a wardrobe with a few sets of new and very expensive sheets that have long been abandoned.  Though her bed doesn't have any sheets, she senses that the sheets would not belong on her bed, that it was not their proper place and it would not make them happy, so she leaves them there and goes without.  Auri lives such a simple life, and for so much of it she is filled with such happiness and joy.  She is happy because everything around her is taken care of and content.

This way of living, the way Auri does, is so appealing to me.  Why don't we all live in a manner similar to this, but instead of focusing on objects, we focus on people?  Why can't we slowly regard the silent things of people, and sense better what they need most for us in that moment?  Why can't we make our focus on helping others instead of focusing on our selfish desires?  Why can't we focus on the simple things, the simple joys of life and living?