If I were to write you a cast of characters instead of my usual daily report, you probably wouldn't miss much!  Today was a day full of new faces and new, delightful personalities.  I spent a very relaxing morning typing yesterday's travel log and responding to e-mails.  Then, around one, I donned my new London-purchased dress and headed off to church, ready to make acquaintances!

This week, I found the chapel without a bit of trouble (no need to ask sweet old ladies for directions).  :-)  I wandered inside and sat down beside a very small, very pleasant-looking girl.  I wanted to speak to her, but she seemed completely engrossed in writing something in her "diary" (day planner).  As soon as she finished, though, her head popped up and she said in a brisk sort of way, "So, who are you?"  I was a bit taken aback by her abruptness, but we soon fell to talking, and I discovered that she has the most charming personality!  She's got big, blue eyes, her accent is very sweet and precise, and she calls everyone "dahling" without a trace of affectation.  She is originally from South Africa, but she's lived in London ever since her mission (three years ago).  She says exactly what she thinks and I got such a kick out of her asides during sacrament meeting!

The meeting itself was wonderful.  A missionary from Manchester delivered a very nice speech (in a very nice accent!), and then a girl from New York gave a beautiful talk about faith.  She seemed so sincere and natural; I wish I could be like that when speaking in public.  I talked with her a bit after the meeting and found out that she's a returned missionary from New York (who served in South Africa!), and that she's working here as a nanny.  

As I exited the chapel, someone handed me a flyer advertising the ward trip this Saturday.  They're going to Oxford, providing breakfast, dinner, and a bus, and it doesn't cost anything!  Hurrah!  My new friend asked me if I'd ever been to Oxford.  I said no, and she tisk tisked.  "You've never been?  Oh, then you really must go, dah-ling!"

During Sunday School, I met a whole new bunch of girls.  There was such a delightful mixture of accents in the classes; I had fun guessing how each person would sound when they spoke.  Three girls had very, very thick Scottish accents, and I was absolutely charmed!  I think I'd like to live in Scotland just so I could hear people speak like that every day.  English accents confuse me entirely; no two people sound alike.  Most people have varying degrees of Cockney, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Middle Eastern accents mixed in with their British accents.  Alas!  I may never really figure out how to do an authentic English accent.

When Relief Society came along, a friendly, well-dressed girl plopped down beside me and began asking me questions.  Apparently, she's from Canada, but she works here in London every summer.  She seemed like a very intelligent, down-to-earth sort of girl, and her group of friends seemed the same.  I'd like to get to know them all better.  (Oh--I still haven't found anyone from BYU.  Someone told me that BYU Study Abroad students get divvied up between family wards.  Too bad!   Also, the Relief Society President kept calling us all “girlies” today.  I loved it!)

After church, I decided to walk around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park (both very near the chapel) to kill time before the evening fireside.  The BYU-Hawaii children's choir is currently attending an international children's choir festival here in London, and they were the ones hosting the fireside.  I really wanted to go; I figured it would bring back fond memories of the Utah Children’s Choir and our wonderful trip to the international festival in Italy.

Today was a lovely day; temperatures have been a bit cooler since yesterday's rain shower.  I walked along the river through the park and discovered several new statues and a section of the park called the "Italian Fountains."  I also stumbled across the Peter Pan statue that the lady and her daughter (the tourists I met last week in church) had mentioned to me.  I was basking in the beauty around me and taking pictures of some dogs swimming through the river to catch colored balls, when Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum came hurtling into my sphere of existence.  From the moment they began speaking until an hour or two after we parted, my face held a perpetual grin!   I've never met a pair like this one, and I'm so glad we stumbled across each other, because I now know that my London experience wouldn't have been complete without them.  :-)

"Ya loike that camera, do ye?" asked Tweedle-Dee, scratching his head of white hair.  "Taykes nice pictures, doos it?" asked Tweedle-Dum, a grin splitting his beet red face.  Both men were so insistent about disregarding my personal space that I wondered briefly if they were trying to steal my camera.  I mumbled something in reply, and Tweedle-Dee said, "So you're Canadian, eh?"  When I answered that, no, I was from the United States, he turned to his chum with a surprised look.  "But ye don't speak loike a Yankee!"   "Ah," replied the grinning, red-faced one, "Look!  She's got an American smoile; jest loike George Bush!"  Then Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum launched into a fast-paced, nonsensical analyzation of politics and presidents and prime ministers, interrupting each other every other sentence, and asking for my input once or twice.  Truth be told, I could barely understand what the two were saying.  I thought I'd heard Cockney accents before, but I'd NEVER heard any this thick!  Red-Faced Man was especially incoherant; White-Haired Man had to translate most of what he said for me because he used phrases I'd never even heard before (Cockney Rhyming Slang, maybe?).  When they found out I was from Arizona, they had a hearty laugh, and insisted on calling me "Cowboy."  ("George Bush is from that cowboy place too, ain't ee?”)

Then, out of the blue, Tweedle-Dee asked me if I'd "got religion."  Apparently, the two crazy men were "maykin' their Sunday rounds o' the churchees."   When I explained that I was LDS and started talking about the Book of Mormon, they latched onto the word "Mormon" and hurtled full-speed into another disjointed discussion. 

"Mormeens is the ones wif thirty woives, roight?" 

"Oi hear there's been problems in the staytes.  The Mormons ask fer yer bank account an' then they drayn it droiy!  Call it toithing, er somefin'."

"Them Mormeens is koinda loike Quakers!" 

"Yeh. They live real clean an' wear dressees."

"They used to battle the injuns.  Dayvy Crockett an' all, ye know."

"Was ee Mormeen, too?"

It was ludicrous!  I couldn't believe I was actually listening to such a topsy-turvey conversation.  I tried to set the two straight as far as "Mormeens" go, explained a bit about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and invited them to the evening children's choir fireside.  :-)  Tweedle-Dee thought for a moment.  "Nah.  I don' loike hearin' infants sing.  Their voices ain't big enough.  I loike the big, anglo choirs!  Africans go crayzee, loike, an' ye cain't understand nuffin."  (Huh?  Whatever!)  We finally parted ways; Tweedle-Dum sending me with a wink and God's blessings.  What a pair!

Those were definitely the most colorful characters I met all day (I could've sworn they were born straight from Dickens' imagination!), but I also met some interesting people at the fireside.  One was a drama queen with a British accent who was constantly fluttering an elegant fan.  I chatted with her for awhile, and after every sentence, she'd make a face and strike a pose.  It was really funny.

The fireside itself was wonderful.  As soon as the children filed in, all dressed in blue, and started singing, a wave of nostalgia swept over me.  My days in the Utah Children's Choir were so wonderful.   This choir was actually very, very good too, and I knew at least half their program by heart (eight years in a children's choir can do that to you!).  There were three speakers interspersed between musical numbers, and they were all children from the choir.  The first little girl who spoke absolutely captured my heart!  She's a sweet, petite eleven, and she wept as she bore her testimony.  I snuck a picture of her after the concert.  :-)

And thus ended my day!  Tomorrow I'll be attending a luncheon sponsored by the London Rotary Club and watching a performance of "The Boyfriend."  We'll see if I have time for the Tower of London, too!  More then. . .