Home at Last!

I cant even begin to tell you how much I want to go to bed right now but I know that will not help me get over the jet lag at all so I will resist the temptation. So I got home-well to my aunt and uncles- at 9:45 last night and it felt so good to be able to just fall into my own bed and not have to worry about waking up to someones alarm at 5 in the morning.
The last couple of day in London were amazing and I just loved being able to spend some free time with everyone. On Saturday we went to the temple which was so much fun and was such a nice relaxing experience. After that we headed back to London and tried to get tickets to Lion King but we did not succeed but it was probably for the best because we were all so tired. On our way back to the center we stopped but the British Library which was truly an amazing experience. We saw stuff by Jane Austen the original Handles Messiah, the magna carta and lots of stuff from the Beatles. It was really cool and defiantly worth it. On our way back to the tube we stopped but Kings Cross and I went and saw Platform 9 3/4. I was expecting the really grand platform and what not but it was just a wall with a sign on it! I was really sad but it was fun to take pictures. After Elizabeth Stuart and I went back to the center and fell asleep in the sitting room for about two hours. After that we headed to dinner at some Thia place that was amazing!!!
Sunday was pretty normal. I taught the young women again and it was alot of fun and we took lots of pictures with the girls and it was great. We didnt have any major happenings on the way there or back which was nice. That night we stayed up and played spoons and had a dance party in the servery. It was so much fun and a perfect way to end the trip. Ilarene, Gerret, Danney and I left for the airport at the six in the morning and it was a really interesting experience taking the tube with two really heavy suitcases... Anyway we made it there fine and we didnt have any problems with our flight. When we got to JFK the first thing we all did was to head for Wendy's. It was so good!!! Anyway now I am just hanging back in Utah trying to get over the jet lag and procrastinating unpacking. And tomorrow I go back to work and get my wisdom teeth out. Should be great fun!

Big Brother Is Watching!!!!

So any of you have not read 1984 Big Brother will mean nothing to you.... But I swear the Big Brother is here in London, disguised in the from of CCTV. So about an two hours ago Elizabeth Stuart and I went down to try and get tickets for Phantom of the Opera again and while be were waiting for the central line tube at the Queensway station I decided to take a picture in the tube for memory sake, since I am there all of the time. Well I forgot to turn my flash off and well it flashed when I took the photo. Less then two seconds later an announcement comes on... "Your attention please, we would like to remind all London Underground costumers that there is no flash photography in any of the London Underground station, thank you." Can I just say that really freaked me out. I know that there was a video camera in the station but the response time was just scary... Anyway we got on the train and when we got off at the next stop another announcement came on "Your attention please, we are experiencing delays on the central line due to the actions of a customer." It really freaked me out and I was just waiting for people to jump out and grab me and drag me off for accidentally taking a picture with my flash on. Oh well, it makes for a good story and fun memories.

This week has been really fun but also full of stress. My last paper for English was due and I really had a hard time writing it. I just couldn't seem to get the ideas in my head onto paper and it was really stressing me out. Eventually I got a pretty decent paper gave up and just turned it in. We also had finals this week. I thought they were going to be pretty hard based on the study guides and so I study really hard and did all the study guide and held a group study session. The test ended up being really easy and I finished my English one in 30 minutes and I finish my history one in 15 minutes. I was the first one done both times and I honestly think this is the first time that I have ever over prepared for exams. Also I have found that wearing a turban while taking exams really helps you focus... haha.

Tonight I think that we are going to watch movies and play poker all night and just hang out and enjoy the time that we have together.

Death by English Paper

Ok, so I would have posted earlier but we didnt get home from Stratford upon Avon until 1 this morning and then we had class and for history we had to go to the imperial war museum and then culture class stuff and I just dont know where the time went...!

So yesterday we went to Stratford upon Avon and that trip helped to reaffirm my hatred of Shakespeare. We first went to this little farm sort of thing were the home of Shakespeare mother was... and it was interesting. There were a few good things though and one of the them was actually quite amazing. So you remember the killer swan from Scotland??? Well Elizabeth Stuart and I were talking and we saw a goose and we thought well I wonder if geese speak killer swan. So she went over and hissed at it like the swan did and guess what?!?!? It hissed back, hahah!!! Another thing that was kind of fun was that there was a lady there that was a falconer and she was flying an Owl around for a little while. She had an extra glove and a few of us had the chance to hold and feed the owl and I was one of them!!! It was really cool and the owl was so big but didnt weigh a thing and I wanted to hug it but I decided I didnt want my eyes to be gouged out. But other then that we saw lots of gardens and a pig that was peeing and got to try milking a cow...
After that we went over to the place where Shakespeare and his wife lived. It had a Mid summers Night Dream theme to it and well... it was all very odd. But the lady who did our tour was really nice and we had a nice chat with her.
We then headed to "The Birth Place"... everyone acted like we were going to see Jesus and the manger. We visited the home where Shakespeare was born and got to see where his father would have worked. It was interesting but very anticlimactic.

After that we had like 4 hours before the play we were supposed to go to and since there was nothing else to do both Elizabeth's and I went to the local library to do homework... We were there for about an hour and a half and then we went to the park and eat dinner and just talked about everything, funny stories from when we were kids and what not. It was really fun and there was a lot of laughter.

After that we headed up to the play. We went and saw A Winters Tale but the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was a very... well... interesting play. The second half was pretty interesting/ funny and the acting was great but altogether I dont think that I would ever read that play even if someone had a gun to my head!

After that we headed back to the bus and had a 2 hour ride home and got back just before 1am :(
I have spent almost all day in class and we had to go to the Imperial War Museum for History and that was really cool! They had some really cool exhibits about the children in WWII and the Holocaust and it was a wonderful learning experience. But other then that I have pretty much died today because I am trying to write my paper for English and I keep hitting a wall and I just cant seem to get past it! Oh well, I guess I will just go keep trying.

A weeks Review

ok, so I have become horrible about posting in the last couple of days and so have a lot to catch up on.

Monday I discovered the joys of Primark! Primark is a store in london that sells everything for ridiculously low prices! It had that most wonderful clothing and coats and I really wish that they had on in the states becuase I would go everyday and buy the whole store!!! anyway it was so much fun and I spent way to much money but it was worth it and I am going to come home dressed like a London girl!

So on Wednesday I officially learned how to play Poker. Elizabeth Davey and Elizabeth Stuart and I played for several hours and it was about 3 in the morning before I finally went to bed. It was so much fun though, we were eating popcorn all night and laughing. We didnt have anything ot bet with so we were using the butter and jam packages that were in the kithchen. Before we played I had made the mistake of eating a whole pint of Ben and Jerries half backed icecream and so I was really hyper. I had a scarf wrapped around my head like a turban and had made myself a paper cigerette! Needless to say that by the time that we stopped that I was winning... beginners luck!! It has definitly been one of the best nights by far.

Thursday night we went to Her Magesty's Theater and saw the Phantom of the Opera. It was the most amazing thing that I have ever seen in my entire life!!! The person that was playing the Phantom had the most amazing voice that I have ever heard in my entire life. He made the phantom from the movie look like he didnt know how to sing. He was so good that by the end of 'the point o fno return' I was crying!!! The girl that was playing Christine was not the most amazing though. We found out later that she was the understudy which explained things. It was still amazing though and I cna not get over it. I have been singing it all day and I bought a shirt while there and I slept in it because I just wanted to remember everything about it!

Today we went to Greenwich! It was really fun and I got ot stand on the the Prime Meridian, the beginning of time! It was really interesting and fun to walk around the muesums and learn about how clocks were invented, space and then vistit the marintin musuems. During this time we walked into and explored an astronomy area and I touched an asteroid that was about 4.5 billion years old!!! It was so cool. Later in the day we ran into Dr. Evans and he told us that we need to go visit the building that ahd some really cool painted ceilings. So after walking around for a while we walked over to go see these paintings. When we got there though we noticed that there were people everywhere in costumes and there was all sorts of stuff for lighting and then we saw a guy walk past with camera stuff. So we stopped and talked to a lady and she told us that they were using the building with the painted ceiling in the film of Gulivers Travels. Not only that but they were filming inside as we spoke and the star in the film was none other then Jack Black!!!! We didnt get to see him cause they wouldnt let us into the building and that was really say but we go to see everyone dressed up in their costumes and what not and it was so amazing. Fancy randomly wondering onto a film set where Jack Black was!!! Haha, it was the highlight of my day because it was just so random.

Tonight we are going to be playing some more poker and I am headed off to the store to go get starburst that we will be using for our money this time! Only a few more day in London and I am so very sad to think that this is going to be ending soon...

Scotland + Lake District = Longest post EVER!!!

Ok so I have not blogged in a whole week because our group went to Scotland and I didn’t have access to the internet while we were traveling and so I have a lot to write about.

July 20

My day started at 4:30 in the morning because we had to be on the bus by 6am or you were going to get left behind. I was glad that we were traveling on a coach and not something else because by the end of the day my butt hurt so badly I wanted to cry.
We spent most of our day in York visiting places like the Jorvik Viking center, The Shambles, York minster abbey. The Jorvik Viking center is on top of this old Viking village that the English excavated in 1980's and over 13 million people have visited the village by now. It was really cool but it smelled so gross!
After the Viking center we toured through York minster Abbey. It was really pretty and the stain glass was so beautiful but we have visited so many abbeys and this one really reminded me of Westminster abbey. Oh, well... We did climb the tower though and from there you could see over all of York and that was really cool. I had a hard time with the winding staircases though and by the time I got to the top I was sick. Rebecca got scared at the top and so I went down early with her but it was so hard to walk down a bazillion year old stone staircase were the steps where not the same height and everything was really narrow, and trying really hard not to fall. Ugh, I was really glad to be out of the staircase when we got back down.
We then loaded onto the bus again and headed for Fountains Abbey. This abbey was a lot cooler because it was destroyed by Henry VIII and it’s all in ruins now and we could walk among the ruins and the landscape was amazing. Allison and I walked around as much of it as we could visit the water gardens and an old mill that was still there. It was really cool and so beautiful, especially because there was not a big city around it so it was a lot more peaceful and you could just relax and enjoy it.
After Fountains Abbey we then loaded on the bus again and traveled in to Durham England and stayed in an old Castle there that has been converted in to a college. It was really cool but unfortunately we were miss informed and it was not Harry Potters Castle :(. After we had settled into our rooms Ilarene, BJ, Allison, Elizabeth Stuart, Elizabeth Davey, Sammie and I went to a small Italian restraunt and it was really good and they were playing really fun music and I want to just get up and dance but I resisted! After that we headed back to the castle and what we thought would be a very unexciting night. It was really cool though and my room was in the Keep which is supposedly haunted. When it got dark a few of us went and explored the castle and an old student ran into us and took us up onto the terraces and it was so cool. You just can’t beat exploring a haunted castle in the dead of night!!!

July 21

This morning we headed for Edinburgh Scotland. Along the way we visited a section of Hadrian’s Wall.... except for the fact that none of us actually saw the wall. We saw the old barracks and the bath houses but there was no wall to be seen!!! It turned out to be ok though because as we were leaving we saw the wall from the bus. It was a sad day though because it rained all day and I didn’t have an umbrella cause mine had broke and I hadn’t yet purchased a replacement. So I spent all day pretty much soaked but it was all good.
After Hadrian’s Wall we went and visited Abbotsford which was the home of Sir Walter Scott. It was really cool and I learned a lot about Scott and the Scottish Enlightenment period. The grounds were really pretty but it was still raining so I didn’t go exploring much but it was still fun and a great learning experience.
We then finally made it to Edinburgh Scotland. Ilarene, Danny, Dillon, Allison, Both Elizabeth’s, Sammie and I went to dinner at this really good burger place. Can I say that I got the biggest burger and was the first one to finish, haha!! After dinner we went and explored a little and went to this place called Chocolate Soup. It was the greatest place that I have ever been to and I am totally in love. If they ever put one of those in Provo they would make a killing! We got the best chocolate drinks that I have ever had and some of the girls for this brownie ice cream sandwich that came with melted chocolate to dip the stuff in and it looked positively divine!
After that we headed up to go on a tour of the vaults which was supposedly really scary and I was so excited. We had to wait for a while during which time the heavens opened and dumped all of its rain on us plus some and by the time our tour guide got there I was soaked to the bones! Our tour guide was amazing and she was a really good story teller but I dint find myself scared at all on the tour and I was really disappointed. The best part of the whole thing was when Danny screamed in our tour guide's face and it scared the crap out of her and it was so funny that I just laughed for almost the whole tour.
After the tour we went back to the hostel and hung out for awhile and just talked. Our intention had been to do homework but that didn’t work out so well. I didn’t end up going to bed until almost 2 in the morning and then I didn’t sleep very well because we left the window open and the seagulls were being so noisy. I only got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep and so I was pretty much dying all day.

July 22

So on Wednesday we went to the Scottish National Museum in Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, Lady Stair’s house and tons of Shopping!!!
The museum was cool and we concentrated mostly on the more modern history and stuff and it was all really interesting and Allison and I found a terrace on the top of the building that looked out at all of Edinburgh. It was really fun and we got really cool pictures of the castle from out on terrace.
After the museum we went and got lunch and saw the Elephant cafe while we were walking. For all of you who don’t know the Elephant cafe is where J. K. Rowling first writing Harry Potter. It was a fun little thing to see. We then headed up to the castle and as we were walking it began to rain again and I really just wanted to cry because I wanted to be dry! Oh well, the castle was amazing and I got to see the crown jewels of Scotland and were Mary Queen of Scotts was born and lots of other stuff. By the end though it was raining so hard that I put my foot down and said that I was not going any further until I had an umbrella. So on our way back down we stopped in a store and got umbrellas and other stuff. We then headed for Chocolate soup to dry out and drink hot chocolate. By the time that we were done it had stopped raining and we headed out to do some shopping. I got presents for a lot of the family and got myself the most amazing ring!!! I really wanted this cashmere purple sweater but it was 200 pounds and I was like heck no!!! Oh well it was a lot of fun and we all got some really nice stuff. Latter I went back to the hostel to try and blow dry my shoes dry and eat dinner. After dinner we went to an organ recital at St. Giles cathedral. It was really cool and the guy that was performing was one of the best in the world! Elizabeth Stuart, Becky, Jessica and I went on another tour of some different vaults because we really wanted to find something scary. It ended up being even less scary and I was so sad :(. after we headed back to the hostel but I only got 4 hours of sleep because someone's car alarm went off at 4 and it stayed on for almost 40 minutes before someone turned it off!!! By then I was really awake and I could sleep anymore. So pretty much I was dying and looked like crap the next morning.

July 23

We left Scotland and headed down into the Lake District on Thursday. We stopped in a town and went to Dove Cottage where William Wordsworth wrote most of his poetry and it was such a cute little place and the landscape was amazing. The Lake District is the most beautiful place that I have ever been and I wish that I had more pictures! After Dove cottage we headed in to Ambleside. We had the afternoon free to our selves while we were here so Ilarene, Allison, both Elizabeth’s and I went out on row boats onto the lake. It was so much fun and the lake was wonderful! We could see a castle and some really nice homes from the lake but we couldn’t get any good pictures of them because we could get close enough.
When we got back to shore we went and got ice-cream and were sitting there and watching some ducks and swans. Well the momma swan came in and while she was two babies and I decided that I was determined to touch the baby swans. The only problem was that the daddy swan was supper mean and we had seen it attack ducks that had gotten to close and when a dog had walked by it spread its wings stuck out its toung and started hissing!!! It was so weird. Well luckily some kids came and started feeding the ducks and so the daddy went off to go eat and turned its back long enough for me to touch the babies!! They were so soft and I have decided that I really want a swan baby to cuddle with!!!
Anyway we went back to the hostel after chilling in a park to eat dinner. Dinner was... well... disgusting!!! But it was food and kept me from starving so I guess that is a good thing. After that we sat around and had girl talk time and then played ERS for quite a while. We played with 8 people and one deck??? It was so much fun and of course I won only after Elizabeth’s Stuart's nail cut my hand open!!! After that everyone else went to go play another game but Stuart and I kept playing for quite a while during which time we collapsed several time into fits of giggles. At one point we went up stairs and I decided it would be fun to knock on Dillon’s door and run away but as I was running down that hall way I turned the corner and my socks slipped on the carpet and I did like a baseball slide down the hall way after which Elizabeth and I died laughing. We had such a wonderful time and I don’t think that I have laughed that much in a very long time!

July 24

On Friday I was so tired that frankly I didn’t care what I looked like and so didn’t even make it all of the way out of my PJ's. We left Ambleside and went to Preston to learn about the church and how it was introduced into England. We even went to the site where the first LDS members were baptized and then we headed over to the Preston temple. It was really cool it learns about the churches early days in England.
After the temple we got on the bus and headed for an old textile mill. I was so mad that we went to the mill because we were supposed to go visit places from Pride and Prejudice but instead we went to some crazy mill!! I was feeling so sick on the bus from being cooped up and from not being able to sleep. Sammie and I ended up leaving the mill early and we fell asleep on the bench for 40 minutes. It felt pretty good but then we got on the bus again and I thought I was going to die!
When we stopped at a rest stop to get dinner I was feeling so sick and I just wanted to lie down and sleep. But we got into the stop and the smell of food was so sickening that I promptly went to bathroom and tossed my cookies twice!!! I was miserable and Elizabeth Davey told me that I "looked like crap." haha, it was funny but I really wanted to cry.
Back on the bus we watch North and South which is an amazing movie and I loved it!! by the time that we got back to the center Ilarene told me that I looked like a ghost because I was so tired and sick and when I got to my room I fell in my bed and didn’t move. Ilarene ended up taking my shoes off for me and getting me medicine.

The week was wonderful and I don’t think that anything could ever beat all the fun and amusingness of this experience!

Look, Feel, Touch, Try, Love, Buy

Haha, the above it the Fringe logo around here and I thought it was so funny because just before we had been in a cashmere store and it totally exemplified what I was doing.

Anyway I am in Scotland and so I cant do any major updating of my blog because it costs me money to be on here. Anyway just to give you guys an idea of what I have been doing, I am currently in Edinbough Scotland and loving life!!! We have visited so many places and I have taken more pictures then ever before. Anyway Ill update this for real as soon as I can and pictures should appear soon!!

Black Lung

So I have officially been named Black Lung after this terrible cough that I have that just wont seem to go away. It is making my life very difficult seeing that I am trying to have fun but instead am spending a lot of my time feeling miserable and coughing all the time. I just wish that it would go away so that I can enjoy all of next week. Also we have a new addition to out dorm... his name is Fredrick of Freddie... and he is a mouse. He scared the crap out of me yesterday when I was talking to the girls and I saw this little black thing scurry across the floor. Professor evens came up and tried to catch him but Freddie got away and now we dont know where he is.

Yesterday and today were pretty good. I spent all of yesterday doing laundry and laying in bed coughing my lungs out. It wasnt so fun but I got stuff done and Ilarene went and got me Thai food for dinner and that was really good.

We didnt get lost on our way to church today!!!! I was so glad because if we had I probably would have died right there on the side of the road because I was so tired. But life went well until we got to church and found out that one of the girls in young women's has swine flu, she wasnt contagious anymore but still it freaked the other girls out, I really didnt care, I am already sick and so I felt bad for her. After that I came home, went to bed and resumed coughing my lungs up. Anyway, tomorrow I have to up at 4 to leave for Scotland. I am so excited!!! We are staying in Durham Castle, where they film most of Harry Potter and then we are traveling down into the Lake district. I cant wait and I hope that I am ok by then so I can enjoy myself!

Harry Potter and Hampton Court

So yesterday and today have been absolutely amazing and probably the best days by far!

The beginning of yesterday was not so fun considering I had two midterms but I think that they both went pretty well but I guess we'll see when I get my grades. But after midterms yesterday Ilarene, Danny, Dillon, Robyn, both Elizabeth's and I went to the Tate Modern Art Museum. It was really interesting but some of the stuff in there was really quite bazaar. Like there was a wall that had dead birds all over it that were pinned there by arrows and stuff like that. It was really disturbing. Anyway it was fun and Danny and Ilarene were a riot!

After that we headed back to the center for dinner and a short break before heading out to go see Harry Potter. Can I say that there is something unreal about watching Harry Potter in London. In the beginning of the movie when the bridge was destroyed I had just walked across that bridge not 5 hours earlier. It was so cool to be able to watch it and see things and places where I have been. And we are going to Durham castle next week and spending the night there, and that is where they do most of the filming. I cant wait. The movie was so exciting and I loved it so much. The movies are getting better as we go and I cant wait for the next two movies.

After the movie got out we walked out side to find that it was pouring rain and I had conveniently taken my umbrella out of my bag before we had left. So we had to run like a half mile back to the house and I had to run barefoot because I had flip flops on and I didnt want to slip in them. After we got back we ended up dancing in the rain for a while and just running around and having fun. It was 11 at night and I am sure the neighbors were not to happy with us but is was fantastic and I was soaked from head to foot by the end of it.

Today everyone went to Hampton Court. It was so beautiful and I dont think that I have ever seen anything that has such amazing gardens. The place was huge and just seemed to go forever in every direction. It was so exciting to see where Henry VIII had spent a lot of his time and where Anne Boleyn was arrested at the tennis courts. Even after them, Elizabeth I and William and Mary lived there and the history was just so exciting. There were tapestries that were 500 years old and they were so cool and I cant believe that they have lasted so long. I was in a group with Ilarene, Danny and Dillon and they were so much fun to hang out with. I wish that I could live there. You have to walk so far to get anywhere that you could never get fat, haha! Anyway not sure what I am doing tomorrow but next week brings Scotland and the Lake District!!!

In front of the Victory

Melissa, Sarah and I in Portsmouth

So today was another Wednesday trip and this time our destination was Portsmouth, Hampshire. It was so much fun and there was so much to see at Harbor, tons of history and neat things. We started our adventure at 8 this morning since it was a two hour bus ride and we needed to be there at ten. I didnt really like having to get up at 6am to get ready but it was all totally worth it. Melissa and I sat on the bus together and we both tried to be so good and do our homework on the way there but we just ended up sleeping most of the way.

Portsmouth was amazing! There is so much history packed in this Harbor and I really had a lot of fun! We started out by going to the Mary Rose Museum. The Mary Rose was Henry VIII favorite ship that sank exactly 498 years ago. In the 60's some people set out to find it and see if there was anything left to raise. They ended up finding the starboard side of the ship completely intact! It took them until the 80's and 90's to finally raise it because it was really hard to dig it our of 500 years of silt and mud, plus they had to be really careful. They think that between 500-700 people sank with the ship and died.

After that we stopped and ate lunch and then continued on into the Naval Museum. It was really interesting and I learned a little bit about women in the British Navy. After that we went to see the Victory.

The Victory was the ship that lead the British Navy in the Battle of Trafalgar. It is where Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson died. He was shot just 30 minutes after the Victory penetrated the combined French and Spanish fleet. The ship is really cool and we got to walk all over the upper and middle decks and got to go down into the hold. When you are close to the ship it looks just like the ship at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean.

After that we went into the preservation room where they are working to preserve the part of the Mary Rose that they rose. It was amazing. They have been spraying it with a preservation wax since 1994 and are not going to finish that until later this year. After that it has to go through a really intensive drying process that could last until 2016. Its crazy but I guess that after a ship has been sunk after 500 years that its kind of important to follow such measures.

After that we headed out to take the Harbor tour. It was a fun little boat ride where they show you alot of the boat that are currently residing in the Harbor. They have a lot of ships that have recently been decommissioned because they dont meet the current safely standard. One of the ships we say was an aircraft carrier that is currently for sell... anyone want a aircraft carrier from the UK???

After that we were kindly informed that there was a chocolate factory store near by and so we went and spent way too much money on wonderful chocolate. We then headed for the bus and a very long trip home.

It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth

So basically the line above it my favorite line from The Importance of Being Earnest. Yesterday was a pretty fantastic day and I loved it. We had class in the morning like usual and I actually really enjoyed it.

First off was English. We had an essay due and unfortunately Dr. Paxman thought it would be a grand idea for us all to get into little groups and we could all read each others fist page. Needless to say that was quite terrifying cause everyone else in my group was so much older and are much better writers. But I think that I did alright but will see if thats true when I get my grades back.

Next on the list was History. History was of course fun as usual and very fasted paced. I love learning in that class, there is so much that they dont teach you about in European History back home. I have a test in History and English this week, both of course on Thursday, but is should be adventurous and hopefully I will do good.

After class Elizabeth Davey, Elizabeth Stuart and I went to the national gallery. I needed to go do an assignment for English and neither of them had been there yet so it was a fun, but of course I forgot my camera and I was very sad about that. The national gallery was great and I really loved looking at the art by Reuben. I spent like an hour in his room alone because it was amazing. My assignment was pretty easy and I got it done soon but I could remember how many of the pictures on it we were supposed to analyse and right on so I did them all... all like 18 of them. Turns out I only needed to to 4 but its all good. After that I met back up with the Elizabeth's and we headed back home for dinner... but I am no longer on kitchen crew so that was exciting.

After dinner the new kitchen team seemed to be struggling because they needed to get done fast so I went and helped them do dished for 45 minutes. Sister Paxman was really confused when she saw me done there, but I just told her I was helping out so that the team could get on their feet. She said that my mom must have raised me very well (haha, yes she did! Way to go mom!!!) After that I ran up stairs to get read for the play!

The play was in an open air theater in Regents park. The park was beautiful and the landscaping was amazing! I was so excited for the play! The Importance of Being Earnest is my favorite play ever and Oscar Wilde is just amazing, I mean come on, who wouldn't want to go see his plays??? The play started at 8 and didnt end until 10:40 but it was the best 2 hours and 40 minutes of my life. The guy who played Algy was just amazing and I almost died of laughter more then once. But that was my day and today I am spending all day in class so that wont be to exciting.

Yeah for another church adventure!

So I didnt post yesterday because I didnt have time, so sorry to deprive you all. But yesterday was yet another adventure for the books.

I am sad to say that I slept through my alarm and so was running late for church. We needed to leave promptly at 8:40 to be able to reach the train on time. Well we left just a few minutes after that but it proved to be the down fall of the trip. When we arrived that the Nottinghill Gate tube stop we ran down stairs hoping to catch the next tube to Victoria train station. Unfortunately we missed the tube and had to wait 7 minutes for the next one. Around this time we noticed that in the mad dash to the platform we lost Jordan and Meagan in the crowd of people. We didnt think much of it because they knew how to get to the station and we figured they would be ok but as we listened to the station announcements we realized that the only other way they could get to the station was closed half way through... meaning they were going to be very lost. We the tube finally reached us we hopped on and hoped there would be no further problems because we were running very late and could miss our train. But of course we got delayed at one of the stations and arrived at Victoria 2 minutes after our train departed. Sad Day!

As we looked at the board to find our train we realized something dreadful... our train stop was closed for construction and there was no service to it! We just about panicked, how were we going to get to church! Well as we looked at the board an announcement said that if we took another train there would be a bus that could take us to Mitchem. So we ran for our new train and made it with time to spare. We got off the train at the right stop and eventually found the bus and guess what!?!? It was a double decker, I was going to ride in my first double decker, so we went right up to the top and sat in the front. And as the bus got ready to leave we looked up to see Jordan running for the bus, but there was no Meagan!?! It turned out that Meagan and Jordan had gotten separated but Jordan was able to find the connection train but we had no idea were Meagan was. So the bus started off and can I say double deakers are terrifying!!! I thought we were going to kill someone or at least hit a car or two. But we didnt and as we reached our stop, Katie and I stood up, cause we were in the front, and began walking to the stairs to get off. Well just at that moment the driver slammed on his breaks and Katie flew into the window and I almost fell down the stairs. It was really startling and scary!!!

So we ran down to the tram had to wait 10 minutes for it and then walked the rest of the way to church. We only got thee 15 minutes late so we figured it wasnt that bad. But on looking at it closer we found that to get to church we had to walk... take the tube... take a train... ride the bus... take a tram and then walk again to get to church. What a fun adventure.

Church was great and I taught the young women's lesson. It was really intimidating cause I had never taught before and I am only a year older then most of the girls. But I got through it ok and kaitlin said afterward that I did really good. Random side note... Kaitlin and I found out that my mom and her mom know each other from high school... its such a small world!

Anyway getting home was much easier but we accidentally left Jordan at church and I felt so bad.

When we got home I took a very long nap and then went and helped with dinner. After we had a presentation by Brother Chidick, who lived through World War II in London. He came and taught us a lot about what it was like to live in London during that time and the things that they had to do to stay safe. It was great.

But now I need to go to dinner and the Importance of Being Earnest is our play for this evening and I am so excited.

Brighton is the place to go and get husbands

So I must admit that my feet have never hurt so bad in my life but today was wonderful and I really enjoyed myself.

At promptly 4:30 this morning my alarm went off reminding me to get up and get ready for our big day in Brighton. Unfortunately I had stayed up very late 11:30 to 12ish doing laundry, reading and what not and so was suffering greatly from the lack of sleep. Anyway, I headed down stairs at 5:30 to meet everyone and only Garret and Rebecca were down there. Soon enough Melissa and Sarah were ready and then Kaitlin came running down the stairs and it seemed like everyone one started remembering that they had forgotten things and people where flying everywhere. So we didn't get out the door until like 5:50 and we were supposed to leave at 5:30! We we booked it to the underground only to find out it would be about 8 minutes before the tube we needed would arrive and time was ticking. We needed to be on the train before 7:30 and we still needed to print our tickets at a kiosk. So you know that seen in Home alone where they are running through the airport... well that was us except we were running through a train station and it was fantastic!

We made the train and when we sat down I became so tired that I think that I dosed the whole way to Brighton. When we got there we headed straight for the beach and as we were walking I noticed a horrible thing... I had forgotten my jacket and it was so cold because the wind was blowing! Well we got down to the beach and to my dismay it was a pebble beach... well actually that is an understatement it was a very extra rock beach with lots of broken sea shells! It was terrible to walk over and at one point I had to stop and pull sea shell pieces out of the bottom of my feet! Anyway, we got down to the water and it actually wasn't as cold as I thought it would be and it was great but I didn't get very far in because I didn't want to get wet and then we cold and miserable the rest of the day. The best part of the whole thing was that after we put our shoes back on we decided to try and take a jumping picture but we didn't have anyone to take our picture so we set the timer and tried to jump before the picture took. I think we must have taken about 20 photos and we could not get one where we were all in the air! But it was so much fun!

After that we walked along the board walk forever and ever and I thought I was going to die because I knew that we were just going to have to turn around and walk all the way back and then some. But it was fun because we kept a sharp look out for Officers because Brighton is the place to get husbands! haha, go tot love Pride and Prejudice! At about 9:50 we turned around and started walking back because we were meeting Adison, Rubie and Anna at the aquarium at 10:30. But just not any aquarium, the OLDEST working aquarium in the WORLD!!!! Just makes it that much cooler. It was built in the 1860's or something like that and it was amazing! There was this one part were we got to go into the amazon rain forest looking thing but the path was covered in mirrors and I could not figure out which way to go because everywhere that I turned I was looking at myself!!! I finally had to start reaching out and touching things to get through the forest!

After the Aquarium we headed out to a french market where I bought my mom a present but I can tell you what that is... sorry! Anyway it was fun and then we headed back to the Pier to look at the rides and just walk around. Well Melissa and I saw this ride called the Booster and it was the coolest thing I think that I have ever seen.. photos on facebook. It was this hug thing at least a hundred feet tall and just swings you around and you go upside down and out over the ocean and everything. It was fantastic and the best five pounds that I have spent since coming to England! After that we wondered around the pier for awhile and then headed out for lunch.

After Lunch we decided to go and find this market located on the North Lanes. Somewhere along the way we realized that we didnt have a map and had no idea where we were going so we stopped for directions and ran across the Royal Pavilion built by George IV. It was massive and fantastic and so cool, it reminded me of aladdin and I really wanted a flying carpet to take me around it. We didnt go inside though cause it would have cost more money so we set out in search of the markets.

We spent the remainder of our envening wondering through the markets and buying clothes. It was great because we would go in one store and Kaitlin would find something that she liked but would then decided not to buy it so we would continue on. But less then 10 minutes later she decided that she wanted to go back and get the whatever and so we had to hike all the way back and find the stores all over again. It was fun though. We stopped for food at this Italian pizza place because we were starving and our feet hurt so bad and it was cheap. The food was good though and then we sent off into the markets again. We didnt last long though because the shos were starting to close and we were so tired. So tired in fact that we went to the train station an hour and a half early so we could sit down and not move... plus we had run out of things to do becuase we didnt want to spend the money to go to a show.

The train ride back was better because the seats were more padded and my butt didnt hurt so bad but it just felt so good to be off my feet and relaxing! But that was my day and a fantastic one!

Cambridge and a Birthday Party!!!

Ok, I am giving up again!!! Why is that the Internet decides not to work whenever I try and upload photos! Its a conspiracy I swear!!

Well yesterday I know that I was horrible and didnt post anything but we didnt get back till almost 9 and I was so tired that I just fell into bed and didnt get up for another hour and a half to change into my PJ's! Haha, oh well, yesterday was amazing and one of the best days by far.

Wednesday July 8, started promptly at 6:30 in the morning :(. I am still on kitchen crew so I had to make sure that I was completely reading to go before I could head down to the kitchens. After breakfast I made myself a sack lunch and then headed out to the bus. Kaitlin, Rebecca and I remembered the dangers of sitting in the back so we promptly sat in the front/middle of the bus. The bus ride was about an hour and a half to Cambridge and can I just say that Cambridge boys are beautiful... Anyway after we got there we sat down at a park bench ate lunch and decided on our plan of attack during which we talked to Professor Paxman and he told us to try and get in to Kings college chapel. So we decided to head over to the chapel to check it out. Good thing that we did to because they stopped admitting people at noon and it was 11:40ish when we got there. It was so amazing! The church has the most wonderful stain glass windows and is also the largest college chapel in England... or is it the world. I cant remember but it was amazing. There are areas where the wood have the initials of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn carved in them! It was so cool!

After the chapel Kaitlin headed off to meet a friend of hers that is attending Cambridge and we set off to find the bathroom for Rebecca. The only public bathrooms where at a place called Lions something, hmmm cant remember. Well anyway we walked around forever and couldn't find the bathrooms so we stopped and as a store owner where we could find them and we was like "oh, just go up and they are to the right" so we walk up and turned right! still no luck, well as we wondered around more we realized that he had been mistaken and should have said to the left! I found them finally and it was a good think to because I think Rebecca was about to have an accident, haha ;).

Well we headed back to Kings College to find Kaitlin and can I say that I have never been asked so many times if I wanted to go Punting. (punting is a river tour where you are in the long boats and they push you along with those long sticks.) Anyway I guess that is how like half of Cambridge makes their money, but it was so bad! Well we sat around for a while and waited for Kaitlin and see her walk out with a boy so we walk over to go get her. Can I just say that she failed to mention that this boy (David) was beautiful, gorgeous, handsome, down right sexy or whatever you want to say. Well he offered to take us around the city later after his class and so we excepted. So we headed down to the Fitzwilliam Museum to go see the Darwin exhibit there and all the art. Well the Darwin Exhibit ended up being totally lame but the art was amazing and I really enjoyed looking at it all. After the Museum we headed to the market place cause there was a mall right next to it and we wanted to see if we could find any clothes that were on sale. I guess that what I think of as 'on sale' is not what the British think of as 'on sale.' I was quite disturbed by how expensive everything was. I guess that it was a good thing though cause I didnt spend any money, haha!!!

After that we headed back to Kings college to collect David for our tour of Cambridge. First he took us to this book store called Heffers. It is the oldest bookstore in England and maybe even the oldest bookstore in the world! He then took around to look at some old Norman churches. These were not just any old churches but churches that reformists like Martin Luther had preached at! We even saw am old round church that dated back to before the Normans when the Vatican had sent missionaries to England's to convert the savages, muahaha!!!!

Anyway, moving on we then set off in search of dinner but some of us were not hungry and others couldnt decided on where to eat so we ended up at subway... so original, bahaha! We sat and talked and listened to Kaitlin and David argue/flirt. We then headed over to Kings college and David took us inside and showed us around. Did you know that you cant walk on the grass in Cambridge unless you are a professor. A professor stopped and told us that they like to walk across the grass just to tick the students off! I have decided that one day I will be a professor at Cambridge and will walk across the grass... what a dream to aspire to.

Now onto Thursday July 9 which of course is my birthday! One Year older and Wiser too!!! Well the day started very slowly, I got up and helped with breakfast and then promptly went back to bed for another hour and a half! It felt great not to have to go to class. Anyway I finally got up and came down to write on my blog about Cambridge but the Internet was not working and so I went back to bed and read for a while. I finally got up for real when Rebecca asked if we wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe and since I have never been I decided why not.

So Rebecca, Kaitlin, Danny, Dillon and myself headed for the Cafe at around 12:45. We got off the tube and headed in the direction that Danny said it was... seeing that he has been there before we figured he knew where he was going.... Nope. We definitely got lost for about an hour! At one point we went to walk across the street and we were in this area were there are these blinking yellow globes. If you walk across in there areas people driving have to stop no matter what or they can get in trouble. Anyway there was a military supply truck barrelling down the street where we were crossing and I definitely thought they were not going to stop and we were going to die. But at the last second the guy driving slammed on his breaks and stopped. I looked up at him and he and the other officer were laughing like never before. Apparently they thought it would be funny to scare the crap out of some Americans.

Later, we were trying to find a map when I noticed military officers walking by all dressed up with their wives, who by the way were wearing those ridiculously large hats that you see in the movies. I wanted to stop some of them and ask if I could take a picture but I decided not to be rude. Well we finally found a map and we looking at this and I say this huge memorial with Queen Victoria on it and this big building behind it. And I was like 'oh, thats cool, it kind of looks like Buckingham Palace'. So I went to take pictures while the others figured out where we were. Well in turned out that it was Buckingham palace and I am an idiot, bahaha!

Anyway, after some more adventuring we finally got to the Hard Rock cafe and ate lunch around 2:30. We somewhere along the way the boys told the waitress that it was my birthday. So when they came out with the ice cream I thought they would sing and that would be the end of it. Nope Wrong Again! They made me stand on my chair and they whole restaurant sang happy birthday to me!!!! I think I turned the color of a very ripe tomato because I was so embarrassed. Anyway it was so fun and the food was great! After that we headed back because I had kitchen duty. At dinner, I dont think that I have ever been so dismayed to have to eat more food because I was still full from dinner and not only that. They sang me happy birthday again and there was carrot cake, my favorite!!! I was so excited but I felt so sick afterward.

But that is the extent of my day and it was wonderful and besides doing laundry I havent done anything else besides fight with the Internet. Tomorrow is Brighton and I am off to the place to get husbands!!!

Ode to Homework

Oh, Homework how I love you
You monopolize my time and all my thoughts
and no matter how I try to stay ahead of you ,
you always catch up and swamp me.


I have been working on an essay for the last day or so and I thought that I was doing great. But I took my first draft to my teacher to discuss some ideas with him. And it went great but now I am sitting here working on it again and I have hit a wall and am dieing. Also I have officially decided that I hate the Internet here! I have been tyring to upload photos to my blog for the past hour and I have finally given up! I think that the computer/Internet is conspiring against me.

Anyway I spent forever in class today from 12-4:30. Ususally I would say that's not so bad but when you are in London no one should be forced to stay in class this long but I guess that its all in the pursuit of a good cause. This weekend that are giving us a four day weekend which means that they canceled class on my birthday! HECK YES!!!! but in order to compensate for the lost time we have to go to class longer. I don't think that my butt can take much more of these chairs!!!!

After class I went promptly down stairs to help with dinner. Oh, I forgot to tell you all but it is my privilege to serve on the kitchen crew this week! What fun! Actually it is fun but I have a weird obsession with how the table is set and how the dishes are washed and sometimes I get frustrated and want to tell everyone to get out of the kitchen and that I will do it all myself! Ha, that would take forever, but seriously everyone needs to know what side of the plate the fork goes on!!! And the first day everyone left early and I got stuck down in the kitchen washing dishes by myself for a half hour and I was furious! Oh well, I had fun talking to sister paxman while I was at it.

Tomorrow is the beginning of more grand adventures. We are traveling to Cambridge tomorrow and I am so excited to visit the university and the city with it. Thursday is my birthday and Friday brings Brighton! And you know what the best part of the whole thing is??? We are traveling to Brighton during gay pride week and Brighton is the gay and lesbian capital of the UK and while we are there, there is supposed to be a gay pride festival!!!! Bahaha, this should be interesting.

Oh and did I mention that in my ward I have been assigned to work with the young women and on Sunday I am going to be teaching. I am so excited but kind of scared! The girls don't have long attention spans and so its going to be interesting but I am really excited.

Second star to the right and straight on till morning

Well I would have updated my blog yesterday but when I tried to get on the Internet it wouldn't connect and then we started watching Casino Royal and forgot.

Yesterday was wonderful and was full of adventuring, sore feet, and runny noses. Kaitlin, Rebecca, Koryl, Diana, Robyn, Eric and Danny and I traveled to Westminster Abbey. Kaitlin, Rebecca and I got up around eight planning to leave around nine but we didn't get out of the door until 9:40ish. It was pretty bad and then there was weekend closers on the underground so we couldn't get to the tube stop that we needed. So we got off at Victoria train station and walked for forever to get there and of course because we went on a Saturday everybody and their mothers brother was there. It was absolutely amazing!

I thought that we had cool stuff back in the stated but I have decided that we just have nothing to compare. When it comes to cool old things the UK wins, hands down! I saw monuments to people like the Bronte Sisters, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Handel. I saw the tombs of kings and queens like Edward the confessor (who ruled almost 1000 years ago), Queen Elizabeth and people like Darwin, Isaac Newton and Jeffery Chaucer! There is a thousand years of history in this Abbey! 38 Kings and Queens were crowned there and 17 are buried there, you cant beat that!

After sending a few hours in the Abbey we ventured out into the city in that area. We say Big Ben, the House of Parliament, the London Eye and an art show called Living Art. It was all these people dressed up and painted standing stone still on these pedestals. In front of the pedestal there was a money box and if you put money in they would start moving and acting and it was so cool. We also say this group of acrobats and one of the guys folded himself in the most painful looking positions I have ever seen. I cant even do the splits and this guy was making the splits look like sissy stuff!

By this point I was dieing because I had made the mistake of wearing flip flops and my feet were killing me and poor Kaitlin's allergies were going to kill her! After we got home I fell on my bed to rest my feet and promptly fell asleep and it felt wonderful! I worked on homework for a while and was actually was very productive. I am becoming very good at balancing facebook and homework! After that a bunch of us, 11 to be exact, went to The Prince Edward pub to get dinner. The food was really good and my cocktail was great, JK! The food really was good though. We then went in search of a galatoo (sp) place because I have never had it before. We ended up not finding one so we went and got mcflurries at McDonald's to celebrate the four of July. After we came back to the house and hung out and then watched Casino Royal, not a very patriotic movie but fun none the less. Overall it was a wonderful Saturday and I am looking forward to many more like it!

Southall

Can I just tell you that I love London. Today I have had one of the most amazing experiences ever! This week Brother Shuler, our director, arranged for us to visit the Sikh and Hindu temples in Southhall. Brother Shuler had studied the Sikhs and Hindu religions and cultures in India. He taught us a lot proper greetings and how Sikhs, Hindu and Muslims are different. I have to admit that I was so scared that I would say the wrong greeting to somebody and offend them but I did pretty good and actually talked to a lot of Hindu and Sikh women while I was walking through the market.

The day began rather dramatically. After visiting Bath and Stourhead I broke out into really bad hives and heat rashes. When I got up this morning the hives had spread all over my stomach and back. It really freaked me out because I dont ever remember having hives before and I didnt know what to do because I have been taking my allergie medicine. We the Shulers had me go over to their flat and take a freezing cold bath to try and stop the spreading and then I had to cover myself in cream to make them go away. By this point I only has ten minutes to be ready to go and I was no where close. Some how I got ready in time and made it down for the final lecture on how we need to behave and when we needed to cover our heads.

Our first stop was the Sikh temple. The temple we visited is the largest Sikh temple outside of India and it was amazing. When we got there we had to take out shoes off and cover our heads with scarfs. When we entered the hall we went and sat down on the left side because the boys sit on the right side. We sat for about 10 minutes and listened to them read out of 'The Book' that holds all the wisdom and teachings of the Guru's. There are 9 or 10 Guru's or prophets that they get all of there teachings from. After we left the hall we went down stairs and shared a meal with the people in the temple. It was my first encounter with Indian food and some of it was really good and other not so yummy. After we finished eating we went into the back of the kitchen and helped wash dished to show our respect. The people were really nice and were really grateful that we had come and helped them.

After that we had a few minutes before we had to be at the small Hindu temple. We walked around the market for a little while and I got some amazing earrings! They are huge, purple and silver earrings and I love them, but they are a little bit heavier then what I am used to and so I can only wear them for a few hours at a time. After that we headed to the first Hindu temple. I didnt get to sit up in the ceremony though because I had started to break out in hives again and needed to cool down, so I had to sit on a bench and drink a ton of water. We then went to a much bigger Hindu temple and a priest came and talked to us a lot about the what the Hindus believe. It was a great experience and we learned a lot.

The Shulers then had organized a dinner for us at a Pakistani Muslim restaurant. We had a few minutes and so we got to shop some more in the markets. It was great and when I was in looking at some shoes a lady and daughter approached me and Rebecca because they had noticed that my favorite color was purple and that was the daughters favorite color too. They were so nice and they told us where all the best shops were and were I could find more purple jewelry! We shopped around quite a bit but then we noticed that we were running late had to book it to the restaurant.

Because it is Friday we were going to a Muslim restaurant on their Sabbath. They had expressed concern about the fact that such a large group was coming and it was predominately American women. But we did a good job and were very respectful and kept our voives low. The food was the best stuff that I think that I have ever tasted. Naan bread is the greatest food that was ever invented.

After dinner I had to come back to the center with Ilarene because she was meeting her cousin and I didnt want her to come back by herself. I played chess for a while with Professor Hawkins son Nathan because he was bored. It was fun and I beat him the first time and then he killed me the second time. At this point I came out and noticed that Alison was looking very sad and I asked her what was up. She told me that she had bought an India suit and it had ended up not fitting her and she didnt know what to do! I was so excited though because I had wanted one so bad but couldn't shop for one cause I came home early with Ilarene. She let me try it on and it fit so she let me buy it from her and it is so cute!

That was the extent of my day but it was wonderful and the most educational by far in the local cultures!

Bradford on Avon

Today was the most amazing day so far I think. We spent the day visiting stonehenge, Bath and Stourhead! You would think that is to much to do in one day but it was perfect and was a great adventure! Kaitlin, Rebecca and I were bus buddies and spent the whole day wondering around together and taking to many pictures!
On our way to Stonehenge I saw a street named Brandford on Avon. Avon is the name of a river and we went over it like 14 different times in differnt places it was crazy! We began our day by stopping at Stonehenge. It was really anticlamatic (sp) but it was still cool to see. I did learn that about a third of all the statues have sunken underground and alot of the pillars were removed long ago, so it used to be a heck of a lot bigger. My favorite part about the whole thing was when our coach driver told us about the local barial monds and the Meagan looked and me and said very seriously, 'Where are all the Dead poeple?' It was the best thing I have enver been asked because I am looking at the huge monument and all she can think about are the dead people! Anyway I also learned that the stone that was used for stonehenge came from 240 miles away and they all way between 5 and 40 tons. Not only that but it was built over 5000 years ago, how it the world did they do that??? and who is they anyway?
After that we headed to the Baths of Bath! Along the way I say Jane Austens home in bath! It was really cool! While at bath we got to see Bath Abbey but we couldnt go inside because they were hosting a graduation. The baths were really cool but they were so gross that you couldnt even touch the water. Disgusting!!! But is was really interesting and I learned alot about the romans. Did you know that they had special tweesers made to pluck the hair out of your arm pits! OUCH!!!! Anyway after our audio tour we went around to the local shops and looked at stuff and all I could think was 'why is stuff so expensive here!'
We then headed to Stourhead. Stourhead is this really natural looking graden but was actually all planned and planted by Henry something. It was so cool! We got to walk across the bridge that is in Pride and Prejudice, the one that Elizabeth runs across in the rain! And then there was the Temple of Apollo. Its a gazebo and its the one that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy fight on! It was so cool. The picture at the top is from there and I stood on one of the things and posed as a statue. Rebecca and I were having a great time posing for people as they walked up the hill! It was the most beautiful place that I have ever seen in my life but the bugs were really bad. There was also this really cool grotto thing that had statues of greek gods in them and waterfalls!
Overall the day was great and full of adventure! Did I mention that I have only been here for a week and I have already lost 6 pounds from walking so much!!!

Im a BUM

I swear we must have the worst class schedule EVER!!! I come half way across the world and you want to keep me in classes all day???  I dont think so, we are going to have to work that one out because to day was ridiculous!  

Class started at 12:30 today but I woke up before eight and went down stairs and ate breakfast.  I was so determined to be productive today so I came back up to my room and spent the morning doing my English reading and writing a poem for the class.  I thought it was going great.  at about 11, I finally went and showered and got ready for the day, which is no small feat!  Have I ever mentioned that our showers are like two feet by two feet.  You cant even move your arms without hitting the wall, plus our showers only have two temperatures, hot and hotter.  I went to History and we managed to cover about a thousand years of history in an hour. It was a great class and I cant wait for more.  It wasnt until after History that I realized that I had another class at 3, its my cultural survey one.  So I had about an hour before my next class, not enough time to go anywhere.  So I took a nap and then went to my next class.  Class went until 4:40 and we learned about a lot of the South Asain cultures that are represented in London.  It was ok, but our teacher seemed to ramble forever and I was so hungry!!!  Class gets over and dinner is scheduled for 5:30, again not enough time to go anywhere, so I took another short cat nap.  Dinner went as normal and then Rebecca and I decided that we needed to get out of the center before we went crazy.  But we spent the next 45 minutes wandering around the center trying to find Kaitlin, who was no where to be found.  During this time we got to visit with our professors and see the flats where they live (they've got it a heck of a lot better then we do).  

We finally found Kaitlin and went on a grand adventure to Hyde park in search of the Peter Pan statue.  We wondered around for about an hour before we found a map that told us were it was.  It was a great time and we spent the time talking girl talk, which is the best!  

But can you believe it, I feel like I wasted an full day doing nothing but sitting in class and sleeping!  How could someone do that while living in a city like London!

As You Like It

As Allyson well knows I have expressed my hatred for Shakespeare's plays as long as I can remember but today I have learned to appreciate his work for once.  

The day began with classes.  I had english first, where we talked about the Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawin and the Green Knight (props to Jessica the TA for teaching a fantastic class) then History , which by the way is an amazing class!  Professor Hawkins is great and his class is so much fun, but it is difficult to stay awake :(.  

Anyway, Kylee, Jordan, Kaitlin, Rebecca and myself went to a travel agency today to try and plan a trip to Ireland but we found out that it would cost almost 250 pounds!  I guess that I wont be going there on my birthday but I think that we are going to go to Brighton and spend that weekend on the beach instead.  Should be fun right!    Even though our hopes were dashed we had a wonderful day because we had a chance to go to the Globe Theater and see the play As You Like It!  It was an amazing experience and I have truly begun to appreciate Shakespeare's  work.  Though I still refuse to read it, watching it is actually very enjoyable. 

 I cant wait to Wednesday because we are traveling to Bath, Stonehenge and another place as well whose name has slipped my mind for the moment.   We have more classes tomorrow which is a good thing because it is supposed to get up into the 80's tomorrow and the 90 on wednesday!  Since when did London have weather like that!  It has only rained once since we have been here and that is pretty much unheard of right?  Oh well I guess that I am learning to truly appreciate Air Conditioning since no one in London believes in AC.

Lost in London

Picture this:  You wake up promptly at 6:30 in the morning and run to the shower to make sure that you are going to get out the door by 7:45.  7:45 comes and goes and you and 7 other girls run out the door hoping that you are going to make the train on time.  You arrive at the train station and you have less then 10 minutes to get your tickets and make the train.  Except Katie's ticket kiosk doesnt work and as everyone scrambles through the train station the train conveniently  it pulls out of the station.  So you wait for the next half hour for the next train to Dorking that stops at Mitcham Junction.  You finally get on the train and all seem to be going well until you get to your train stop and the train Dosent Stop!!! You try frantically to get the door to open but nothing works so you resign yourself to get off at the next stop.  The next stop comes and you frantically run up the stairs in your high heels and dress, sprint across the bridge and down the next set of stairs to make the train that is going back to where you are supposed to be.  You finally make it and you walk over to the tram station only to realize that there are to trams and you dont know which one you are supposed to take (side note: never get directions from a British person even if they are your bishop, just use google maps and you will be ok).  So you take the tram that goes up the hill, cause that is what they told you to do, only to realize that you have no idea where you are and so you take the tram back down after asking several people where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is and they all look at you like you are crazy!  You finally get the correct tram stop and find a map that has your church on it, except for the fact that the map is backwards and you dont know it until you have walked two miles in the wrong direction.  You finally reach church after two and half hours and half to sit on the front row.  

This was my first experience traveling to church in London.  I forgot the map because I know that directions but who knew that British people gave such horrid directions.  So me and seven other girls spent a wonderful Sunday morning trekking though South London.

Other then that church was a wonderful experience and it was great to met so many people.  There are probably about 50 people in the ward total and we had Relief Society in a room that we usually use for sunday school.  The majority of the ward is made up of people that have immigrated to England from Africa and they are so nice and great members.  

After church we got home just fine and that was so exciting knowing that now there is no way that we can get lost and we got a nice tour of south London.  Needless to say we were all so tired that most of us fell asleep for almost three hours, got up for dinner and then went to a fireside.  Overall it made me very grateful that we are so close to our churches back in the states and we don't have to walk hours to get to church.  Next week the bishop wants us all to get up in front of the ward and introduce ourselves and I am honestly scared out of my mind!  Oh well, life in the UK continues and as gloriously as ever!

Torture and Relaxation

Today was a wonderful day full of torture and relaxation. The torture began with the terrible news that my favorite singer of all time had died. Please, a moment of silence in memory of MJ.... ok moving on. I was very excited to learn that today Kaitlin had a Tricia moment, she put her shoes on the wrong feet, Ha, I am not longer the only one!
We began the day by heading out to the Tower of London. It was so much fun but there were people everywhere and all I wanted to do was tell them all to get out of my way so that I could see! I was so sad to because yet again I encountered a place that would not let me take pictures inside! No pictures of the crown jewels and no pictures of Henry VIII armer. Can I say that Henry was HUGE!!! I dont mean tall but rather fat. It was crazy, I didnt know that people knew how to get fat back then. It was really interesting to because there were alot of prisoners who would carve things into the wall and it was amazing to think that some of the suff that we saw was all the was from the 1500's. During th ecorse of the trip kaitlin and I were separted from the group because the Loo was calling. I want everyone to know that I stood in the 1995 Loo of the year, hahaha.
As Kaitlin and I set forth we set our sights on Bloody Tower, only to be turned away because we were not with a professor! WHAT! I am an adult thank you very much and do not need to have a professor in tow to make sure that I behave! Anyway we still had a lot of fun and latter we met up with Rebecca and continued our adventure. We soon found our selves in an old torture chamber. There was all the stuff like the rack but there was this one torture contraption that they used to compress people. Who the crap comes up with this stuff??? Later we walked across the Tower Bridge and wondered around the other side for awhile. We were looking for food but soon found ourselves out of luck and had to travel all the way back to palace court (it took us about 45 minutes to an hour to get back).
After we returned I spent a wonderful afternoon relaxing and doing homework. I can officially say that I have now read part of the Cantabury Tales, but I probably didnt understand half of it because it was all in middle english, anyone want to translate? It was really interesting though and I cant wait for our trip to Cantabury now.