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.

Pondering on three days of Amazingness!!!!

After taking Professor Davis' Political Science class last semester I swore that I would never have a blog because he made me read tons of articles about how blogs should only be used to become politically informed. But here I am sitting on the floor of my room in an old Victorian town home dieing to share some of the things that I have seen and learned about here in London.
I arrived in London on June 23 and soon learned that jet lag is one of the worst things that I have ever experienced. I thought after being in college for a year that I would be pretty good at staying awake for more the 24 hours but I have never had such a hard time staying awake in my life!! It was so bad that but that night when we went to take a walk in the park I couldnt even get my shoes on the right feet, it took me three tries!!! I have wonderful roommates and Ilarene is my wonderful bunk mate. I have to say that the whole thing reminds me of girls camp and the beds are the same too.
The first night myself, Katlin, Rebecca and a few others ventured forth into the unknown and began exploring Hyde park. It was truly amazing! My first surprise came when i noticed that so many people were out and about running, walking, riding bikes and everything! Something so simple but can I please say that I have not seen a single obease person yet and I have been here for 3 days! Everyone here is so active and I love it... why are people in the US so inactive, dont they realize the simple joys that one can have from just taking a walking in the afternoon sun?
Anyway, during out verturing we ran across the Prince Albert memorial and it was so amazing. The marble statues, paintings and a giant gold statue of Prince Albert, even the fence was cool! It was an excellent way to start my grand adventure in London! On the way home from the park we got yelled at by a group of middle eastern boys and that was interesting.
On the 24 we decided to go a kabab place and try out some middle easter food. I promise there is no connection between the boys at the park and our choice of food the next day. I was so amazing and I have officially decided that I like lamb. After we took our first trip in THE TUBE! Thats the underground subway system. I was so proud that we made it all the way to the British Museum without getting lost and we didnt even have to ask for directions! That may be a stupid thing to be proud of but when you are half way around the world you have to be pretty proud of not getting lost. The British Museum is the largest museum that I have ever seen, we were there for 3 hours and I didnt even complete the top floor. I am definatly going to have to go back. I decided that I could live there for a year and I still wouldnt be able to see everything that I wanted to. I think my favorite thing I saw was this jewelry set that was made out of coral, it was so pretty, pink and white and so prefect. Haha, I fell in love with it instantly. We spent the evening playing Never Have I Ever and can I just say that after like the 2nd round I couldnt come up with anything to say but it is such a fun way to learn about people!
Today Rebecca, Katilin, Ilarene, Adisen, Gerrett, BJ and I all went to Saint Pauls Cathedral. I learned that it was built in 35 years, and I saw the tomb of John Donne, and a million more famous people. We had to walk up 376 stairs to get to the top and when we came down I was so scared that I was going to fall and poor Rebecca had to wait for me at the bottom for forever! We also decided that one sunday we are going to go sit in on a mass because they have Evensong and its a little boys choir and its supposed to be amazing. Tomorrow we are embarking on another grand adventure to The Tower of London and I can not wait! I feel like I am lost in a fairytale, so much to do and so much to see!