Mormons, Canoes, and Mr. Darcy

England is like a magnet for me. Case in point: the second weekend of October I traveled with my friend Ashley to a Young Single Adult Conference in Yorkshire! 

I met Ashley at church. We both go to the English ward and are the only young, unmarried women there. So of course we bonded. She got her masters in the UK and so she knows the Mormon scene there and invited me to go with her to what is called the Huddersfield Young Single Adult Convention. Mormon boys? England? A girl friend? She didn’t have to ask me twice. I really didn’t know what to expect but since it sounded like a combination of all my favourite things it would have been irresponsible to sit it out!

So I took work off on that Friday and got an early morning train to the Amsterdam airport. Our plane was pretty tiny:

propeller plane!

When we got to Manchester we hung out at the airport for a little while waiting for Ashley’s friend Megan to pick us up. Megan is another American who is getting her PHD in England. She’s been there so long that she actually has an english accent! And a car! I’m a bit jealous of her life. 

Joining another two people’s friendship could have been super awkward but they were really welcoming and it didn’t take long for me to feel really comfortable around them. We had some time to kill before the conference really started so we went to a charity shop in downtown Huddersfield and it was EPIC. I was able to find an entire outfit there; a crazy hat, a yellow coat and a red necklace. I wore it the next day of course!

True Fashion

After that we went to Nando’s, a portugese restaurant, which is apparently an essential part of being a Mormon in England. Then we just relaxed at out hotel before the dance.

The dance was roller skating themed. I was pretty exited about roller skating and didn’t think it would be too hard. However, I fell flat on my back. It was like a banana peel slip in a slap-stick comedy. Ashley almost landed on me. I got the wind knocked out of me and, though I tried to continue, my heart just wasn’t really in skating after that. I met some cool people though. One guy that I talked to came back out of nowhere later in the night and gave me a piece of candy. I was like, “What’s this?” and he said “just turn it over.” So I did and it was a conversation heart candy thing that said “Dream girl” on it. I was like, ‘oh boy’ and gave him a thumbs up or something, not knowing what to do. 

Flattering but uncomfortable. 

The next day we slept in a little bit and got to the conference in time for the service project. The project was a bit of a cop-out this year but I still had fun just being around my new friends— Ashley had introduced me to these AWESOME Scottish girls the night before and they were hilarious. After lunch everyone split up for activities. Our activity was canoeing. Oh my gosh, it was such a good choice! The highlight of my weekend! First of all, we got to drive through picturesque Yorkshire. And then there were only like 10 of us so we actually got to talk to each other rather than just being stuck with people we already knew. Since the weather is getting cold, they gave us wetsuits. I have to say, it takes some courage to wear a wetsuit in public, but I did it! I shared a canoe with this guy named Josh who also likes to travel so we bonded over that. Some of the others were having a lot of trouble with their canoes and had to be rescued. This entailed switching canoes so that I was with one of the guys who ran the place and canoeing back to shore to get the small motorised raft boat. I had a little bit too much fun with that— I stood on the front as we raced way too fast through the water towards the canoe in distress with my hair blowing out behind me. Afterwards Ashley was like, “who are you?” haha. 

The Gang

Only one of us had appropriate footwear. Also isn't my nail polish pretty?

Ashley, Me, Meghan

rocking the boots with wetsuits look

We learned from our lake guides that there were some cool ruins nearby. So before we went back to the church we all went and explored that. It was a beautiful lookout point of the lake as well as an old crumbling castle/watchtower. I climbed all over feeling like a little kid again. I just love that there were no ropes like “don’t go here” anywhere. It was all free game.

I think I was on the other side of the moat

Somehow we started doing exercises...? I think I was making fun of the way I danced the night before

Walking off into the sunset

After that we had dinner and there was another dance- Harry Potter themed. I had thought that I would just put a lot of random eccentric stuff on and dress up as ‘a witch pretending to be a muggle’ but we didn’t have time. And that was fine. We had fun dancing and talking and I got to meet more people. 

Sunday was the last day of the conference. First we had sacrament meeting. The impromptu choir was incredible. Ashley explained to me that, while Mormons in general are known to be good singers, it’s especially true of British Mormons. Seriously it was so funny how good they were. And I don’t usually get worked up about listening to choir music. But I was like #whoa. 

There was a sort of picnic lunch after sacrament meeting. Since we weren't in a hurry we just hung out and talked to people for awhile and even did some little sing-alongs around the piano (again, so Mormon, haha). 

We had an awkward amount of time left over after that before we needed to go to the airport so at the last minute we decided to go to Lymehouse. This is a beautiful old manor house where the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice was filmed. It was so worth it! By this time me and Megan and Ashley were just besties and we had so much fun just exploring and joking together.

Side note: one of the best aspects of that weekend was the fact that Ashley and Megan thought I was so funny. Like, I would say vaguely eccentric things and they’d be like, “stop! I’m putting that quote on twitter!” I was like… “well, ok then.” It’s nice to have my genius appreciated every once in awhile ;) 

So here are some pictures of our time with Mr. Darcy: 

This was in the gift shop.
You know, I actually got broken up with in the process of a BBC Pride and Prejudice marathon?
I've made peace now. 

Home Sweet Home!

Fall Leaves

Beautiful landscape

having fun with my little photo shoot

candid that I like

getting funky

getting up and personal funky

collecting leaves like Gollum

I love leaves so much

Happy Autumn! 

Flippin ma hare -cause that's what you do when you live in an English Manor home

Oh, but how I love England. And this trip was a great reminder that ‘London’ does not equal ‘England.’ Even though I visited London earlier this year, it didn’t matter. The rustic quaintness of Yorkshire makes it a totally different place. Love. Love. Love.