Today has been an interesting day to say the least. I literally didn't leave the house until well after 6:00 pm. I've been up since 7:30 literally doing homework or sitting in class. It hasn't necessarily been fun, but its been super productive. I finished all my english reading and now I just have to write my poem and do my history reading. Its been an adventure. 

After dinner, Kaitlin, Tricia and I went to Hyde Park to find the Peter Pan statue. We found it obviously. Fun adventure. 

On the walk we discovered lots of fun information about each other. Turns out Kaitlin was the "other girl" involved in the whole Kenneth Price scandal. Most of you don't know all about that... and its a long story but basically another girl was involved that I found out about tonight. Well she wasn't really involved... just a fun twist in the plot. But yeah. 

Tomorrow is going to be an adventure as well. We are going on our first day trip tomorrow. We are going to Bath. Its going to be super fun. Sad that the part I'm the most excited for is the air conditioned bus. It'll be a fun adventure!

Love you all!

Follow up from last night

Sorry about last night. I was just way too tired to write anything. Here are some more details from the show last night.

It was a great show! So fun! All of the actors were great and it was just a fun experience. Thankfully I made the smart decision to buy a cushion thing before the show started. Those benches were awful! So, that was nice. We were sitting in the back corner as a huge group. So we were mostly watching people's backs. But it really was still a fun show! 

London is so hot right now. Riding the tube is the worst thing you could do. I feel like we are spending 1/2 of our time waiting for the trains or actually being on them. They are so hot. Its miserable. 

Things are fun and I'm loving it. Today is basically a homework day. Nothing too exciting planned. We have class in a bit and then another class a while after that. It doesn't look like I'll be leaving the center and going on an adventure today. Sad. Turns out that we have a TON of reading to do and it takes forever. I'm kinda not too happy about it. We are going to be spending lots of our time reading instead of out playing. We might try and convince Prof. Paxman to cut our readings down a bit, but it doesn't seem like it will be very promising. 

Love you all!

Shakespeare, cushions and the not so trusty Tube.

Things are awesome. Its getting kinda late so I'll keep this post pretty short. 

Today we had school in the morning and then Tricia, Kaitlin, and I ran some errands to buy other books for english and look at some travel info. It looks like none of us will be leaving the country for our free weekend which is kinda sad. But that's okay! 

We went and saw "As you like it" in the Globe Theater. Well, technically its not the real globe but the recreation of it. It was lots and lots of fun with some great laughs! I really enjoyed it. 

That's about all that really happened today... so sorry for the lame post! I'll have more time tomorrow! 

Love you all!!!

oh and the pictures went on weird, but you get the idea. 

Sooo hot!

It is soo hot in London right now! Its actually kind of insane. All the londoners are complaining just as much as the rest of us. Not only is the weather really unusual, but they don't have air conditioning anywhere. It doesn't normally get this warm so they aren't expecting it. Our house has been sooo hot! Its crazy to try and stay in our bedrooms at all during the day and its not much cooler downstairs. (Not to mention I think that I'm allergic to something in my room/bed because i have the worst allergies when I'm up there) I am just hot and sweaty almost all the time. Hopefully it'll start to cool off sometime soon. I'm praying it does because sleeping at night is kinda hard...

I don't have much to say today. We just got home from church. It took us about an hour to get there and then an hour back. Its not too far, I guess. And we were only lost for a few minutes. It looks like it won't be too hard to get to church every week, thankfully. We rode the tube for about 20 minutes and then hopped on a train and then had about a 10 minute walk. 

The ward is going to be fun! There are so many people from so many different backgrounds. Its so interesting to see! I met A TON of people! There's no way on earth I'm going to remember any of them, but I'll try. Lots and lots of hugs (apparently they don't believe in shaking hands...) and just fun people. Our Bishop, Bishop Cooke, is really cool. He's from Jamaica and can't be over 35 years old. He "interviewed" the 4 of us girls when we got there and gave us callings... kinda. I don't have one yet, but I've been "placed" in the Young Women. 

Sacrament meeting was fun. There were some sweet talks and it was just nice to be somewhere familiar for the first time in a few days. Everyone was very friendly and accepting. Almost a bit too friendly haha. Sunday School was a riot! The teacher was actually from the states who was out here going to Grad school. He was really funny and made the lesson interesting and got everyone involved. Young Womens was hilarious! Jordan (the other girl with me) and I were trying sooo hard not to laugh. There were a few times when we just couldn't hold it in much longer. There are 4 girls in the ward and they are just so funny! Hard to explain, but I"m looking forward to lots of laughs and stories! :)

The ward is pretty small. Probably 20-50 people smaller than the 14th ward. There are 2 sets of missionaries in the ward and 2 more in the ward that shares our building. We kinda spent a bunch of time chatting with them. Elder Hanks, the one I met, is from SLC and went to Skyline. He knows the Reeses and played football during our senior year when Highland pretty much killed Skyline. Good times. There are people from all over and all different kinds of accents. Its going to take some getting used to, but I'm getting better! 

Funny Story!! So, there are a whole bunch of us assigned to this ward. Jordan, Melissa, Adrian, and the Hawkin's family. Its a fun group. I really like them all! (Brother Hawkins is our history teacher) Well.. when we walked into the church, we met a few random people and then this guy walked in. Jordan kinda hummed or something because of how good looking he was and this lady beside us just about died laughing. Jordan was so embarrassed, but it was soo funny! Then he turned out to be the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric. He's really really young and cool. He's also from Jamaica and it seems like he'll be fun to get to know over the next 5 sundays. 

The tube is awful right now. A lot of the lines are down for construction during the weekends or just down in general, so there are a ton of people everywhere. Its kind of a pain. But that's okay. It should get better eventually. 

I don't know if I've mentioned anything about this house we're living in. So, I'm going to. Its beautiful!!! The place has amazing ceilings and floors and walls! It was built when Victoria was queen and they have just updated it since. Not a great deal of changes. So cool! There are A TON of floors! I haven't even been all the way up! I live on the 4th floor, so i get to walk up a ton of stairs that make you feel like you're 80 pounds over weight because they squeak so much. Its a great house and lots of fun to experience. It reminds me a lot of Marry Poppins! I'll be sure and take a bunch of pictures :)

The other day in my culture class we talked about "culture shock" and the steps in it and what not. Its really not a shocking thing.. more of a process. Brother Shuler (the teacher and the permanent resident here) was explaining the steps for us and its interesting to see how views of people change and things. He said that the first step is the Honeymoon Stage quickly followed by the Frustration stage. One doesn't necessarily become frustrated with the culture or people, but just frustration in general. I think I'm in that stage. haha Sometimes things are just annoying. When 60 people live in one house, there are bound to be shower issues. And moving with large groups in London is near impossible and I have found I don't really like being in a group over 6 people, so it gets frustrating when there are too many of us. But yeah.

London is awesome! I'm loving it here and can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

Feel free to comment and leave me any ideas you have for something fun to do!!! Love you all! 

My first London Rainstorm

Today was quiet the day! We have done so much this week its insane!! I can't believe that this time last week I was still in the states. So weird! It feels like I've been here forever! 

Some fun facts about London:

They don't have "exit" signs. They have "way out" signs.

"Mind the Gap" says the lady on the tube. 

They really do drive on the wrong side of the road! I got over that pretty fast but I still can't get over the whole other side of the car thing! That one's weird! 

My house is super old! 

They can't fix ceilings unless they want to replace all the plaster and the whole ceiling.

It rains HARD here!

Everything is expensive

Their portion sizes are really small.

They don't put ice in their coke.

Pepsi from England is weird. Coke is better.

The prefer sparkling water, so be sure and ask for still.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!! I hope you had a super fun day!! Know that I'm thinking of you!!! 

Today was an interesting day! It started out with a bit of sleeping in, which was greatly appreciated. Then a group of us headed down to Portabello Road to the outdoor market. They do it every saturday. Its tons of jewelry and clothes and food and antiques. SOO fun! I bought a couple necklaces and a scarf! I was with Tricia and we found a couple of awesome deals! Lots of cheap stuff. We're planning on going back in a few weeks and getting some fun clothes! We'll probably go later in the day because that's when everyone lowers their prices. haha

After that, Tricia, Kaitlin, BJ and I went to the V&A museum. It was a fun adventure. We decided to take a bus because the circle line has had so many issues recently. Funny Story: we all quickly realized that we actually had to flag the bus down in order to get on. We missed the first bus we tried to get on, and ended up having to wait about 15 minutes for the next one. It was kinda funny. 

In the museum (which is free, might I add) we saw some pretty funky stuff. Lots and lots of clothes and shoes which were totally insane. There was a dress made out of black bras and some really cool old dresses as well. Some of the jewelry was fun too! I really like the sparkly stuff and I think all of us girls were driving BJ crazy! haha 

We saw some tapestries from the 15th century which were super cool! They kept the room nice and cool and preserved them with vinigar which smelled nasty! haha 

Then... we found some interesting costumes.... pictures below. I don't know if I need to say much else... haha

After the museum, we decided to take a walk back instead of dealing with the packed public transport systems. On our walk back, we got stuck in our first London rain storm. (well technically BJ has been here before. but whatever) At first it was just sprinkling and then it started pouring. I'm so glad I thought to bring my umbrella! It was a little refreshing though. 

Then Kaitlin and I went and bought phone cards and suffered through some more rain. We ended up eating dinner at an Indian Food restaurant. I hadn't had Indian food before and was feeling adventurous. I got this Garlic Chicken thing which was really really good! I think I might be a big fan of Indian food after all. :) 

Now, I'm just trying to get some homework done, but not having a great deal of motivation. I just got off the phone with my parents and might try giving Trevor a quick call as well. 

Also, I'll fix my blog so you guys can leave comments if you want! 

Miss you all!! Love you!! 

Waiting for the bus. Tricia, Kaitlin, and B.J.

So... we found these costumes...

We kinda really like the V&A museum!

The London Eye!

Red Phone Booth! (I have one of me in it..but it

didn't turn out very good)

LOVE IT! :)

530 carats! (hint hint)

Today was so crazy! So much happened today! This might be a long post (with pictures on the post earlier) so, yeah!

This morning was really hectic! Getting 50+ people to the Tower of London sure was an adventure! We had to ride the circle line to get there and it took about 40 minutes. 

Seeing the Tower of London sure was a site! It was smaller than I expected (I was kinda expecting a tower...) but it was soo cool! We waited outside for a bit and took a bunch of pictures until our professors got there. We soon went in and started with the White Tower which housed all the armour and stuff. King Henry VIII was one large man, that's for sure. It was interesting to see all that stuff up close. Some of it was really beautiful and intricate! So cool! :) 

After that we went in to see the crown jewels! Now that was an experience! Too bad we couldn't take pictures! Holy cow! That stuff was sparkly! One of the crowns had a 530 carat diamond on it!!! I didn't know a diamond that big even existed! It was crazy huge! 

Then we went in a few more towers and saw carvings on the walls by the prisoners and were prisoners were tortured. The interesting thing is that only 81 people were actually tortured, 42 of them actually in that tower. Its funny how people can blow things out of proportion throughout history. 

We walked around a few more places and took some other pictures. Saw people putting on little plays and saw some more crowns and stuff. Pretty cool. 

Then Kaitlin, Tricia, and I walked (slowly) across the Tower Bridge! Sooo pretty! The colors are amazing and beautiful! When we got on the other side, we looked around for some food of some sort... but failed. We walked back over and still couldn't really find anything cheap. So we just got back on the Tube and rode home. Tricia went home, but Kaitlin and I went to this cute cafe by our house. We both got some simple sandwiches for pretty cheap. They were pretty good. The cute Italians that owned the place were the best. The lady was laughing at us when we were trying to pay her because we couldn't figure out which was the 20 pence piece. haha. Cut us some slack people! We've only been here 4 days!

Then we came home and did some reading and looked up some info online about things to do in Brighton. We aren't going tomorrow after all. So, I'll post the fun info later when we go. haha

After dinner, Robyn, B.J. and I went and got ice cream (best mint choc chip ice cream i've ever had!) and then we just decided to hop on the tube and go somewhere. We got off near the London Eye and Big Ben. We just looked at prices and walked around enjoying the calm and cool night. We bonded and talked a lot :) It was really fun and chill! They are some fun kids! 

We tried some British candy tonight along with the classic peanut m&ms (you know me) which was a bit of an adventure. haha

Tomorrow will be fun as well! Miss you all and can't wait to show everyone all my pictures!

Tower of London pictures

An actor telling a story. 

View from the Tower Bridge!

Tricia, Kaitlin, and I on the Tower Bridge! :)

Well, as usual, I'm laughing...

Cute houses in the Tower of London! 

People actually live in them!

Outside View!

Kaitlin and Tricia waiting to go inside  

the Tower!

The Tower Bridge! SOO cool to finally see!

Maybe I joined the wrong religion...

Today sure was an adventure. We woke up and had breakfast then started classes. Things aren't going to be too crazy from the school end of things which is a bit of a relief. I just want to be out playing in London! 

This place is amazing! I'm starting to get a better feel of how things work here. The Tube system is pretty nice. I haven't really gotten lost yet either, which has been way good! I feel like I'm completely adjusted to the time here now. That's a relief. I would be dying today if I was still super tired. I'm making some fun friends and really enjoying meeting everyone. We have a very wide variety of people here in London. Some interesting personalities. Thankfully all of my roommates seem to have the same interests and we're all similar personalities. Its really fun.

Its interesting to note how much quieter things are here. You don't here a lot of sirens (it might just be our location) and when you're walking around or on the tube, no one talks loud, if at all. Its been a bit of a reality check for me as well as some other girls. We're learning to stay calm and not talk so loud and offend any british people. haha

Well, after classes today, a group of us went on our own little adventure (after an hour and a half of reading ugh!) to St. Paul's Cathedral! I think that was one of the best experiences ever! There were 7 of us that went and we all claim it was the best 9 pounds we've ever spent. That Cathedral is GIANT! I don't think I've ever seen anything like it! It is 300 years old... and it only took 35 years to build which is insane considering it took 60 years to build the Salt Lake Temple! We couldn't take pictures inside and its hard to describe what I saw... but it was truly amazing! 

We climbed up 367 stairs to the bottom of the dome. It was an intense climb and we were all tired by the end. haha The view from the top was amazing! I can't believe I climbed up there and I'm sure my family feels the same way! I looked down and didn't cry or anything! I'm so proud of myself! :) 

That's about all that happened today! It sure was fun! We have another class tonight to learn about the Tower of London before we go see it tomorrow and then it looks like I might have to stay in and do homework.... oh well!

Tower of London tomorrow!!!

  The Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. So cool! We climbed up there!

Cool Arch we found behind the cathedral. No clue what it is though :)

The group of us who went to the Cathedral! 

(Tricia, Kaitlin, Addison, Ilarene, Me, and Garret. B.J. left early.)

View of the London Eye from the top of the Cathedral!

The Front of St. Paul's Cathedral! So amazing! You can't even begin to imagine how big this place is! It was mind blowing!

Day 2

.. and last night as well. 

So many things have happened! I can't believe its only my 2nd day here! Holy Cow! Last night was really fun! After dinner a larger group of us decided to go walk through some of Hyde Park since we're so close (and we needed something to keep us awake). We ran a few quick errands first at Boots and then we were off to the park. It was a beautiful night. We saw lots of interesting folk and things. :) We started hearing something loud coming from the corner-ish of the park (there aren't any mountains so I have no clue what direction anything is) and started walking towards it. (Thankfully we didn't make it far enough because it was definitely a huge group of angry protesters chanting and stuff) We ended up finding this really cool Arch that Queen Victoria had build after her love, Prince Anthony died. It has to have been one of the coolest things I've ever seen! I took a bunch of pictures, but I can't get them all to rotate...sorry! 

Later that night, I thought I was going to die. I literally hadn't slept since I left SLC and I'd been on my feet pretty much the whole time as well. I was sooo worried that I'd be jet-lagged and not sleep through the night. But I took a tylenol pm and was out ALL night until 7:00 this morning. Getting ready was a bit of an adventure as well. About 30 girls share 3 showers. Its a little intense. (Also, the shower doors are almost see through...we're getting to know each other real well super fast haha) But it looks like its going to work out okay.

We had more orientation this morning which was really boring. It didn't help that we could all tell that the professors were super bored too. haha but we got through and then started on our adventure for the day! 

After the meeting. 5 of us decided it was time to try some new foods. We had found this cool restaurant over on Queensbrough (just a few blocks over) that we wanted to try. It was this cool kebab place. So we headed over and ate some interesting food. It was really good! I got a chicken one and loved it! I'm really excited to keep trying stuff! I'm starting to feel a little more adventurous. Maybe I'll even try some fish and chips! 

My first Tube ride followed. This included seeing a man wearing super super short shorts. It was way more than I ever ever ever wanted to see! So gross! But it was a fun experience. Different then New York subways, I think. And the stairs and escalators are super steep and scary! 

This afternoon we went to the British History Museum. It was so cool! Our assignment was to go to 2 of the rooms and find 6 things we learned about and write a little assignment about them. Pretty simple. So, we ended up with extra time to explore. Robyn (a roommate) and I decided that the most important thing for us to see was the Parthenon sculptures. So, after about 10 minutes of being lost in some Egyptian stuff (we're going back a few more times later, but we really wanted to see some other stuff too. Don't worry. I'll get back to the museum) we finally found it! But, we also saw the Rosetta Stone on the way! Now that was cool! The pictures didn't turn out super well, but I should get another chance someday soon. BUT! we did get in to see the Parthenon stuff which was amazing!! So much bigger than you expect and so cool! I'm positive we will get sent there again, but it was still fun to see! 

Then, Robyn and I were walking around the little store looking for postcards and stuff and found a t-shirt with the famous "disc thrower" statue on it. We both got really excited thinking, "We have got to find that!" After about 20 minutes being lost and looking for the statue, we gave up and decided that its most likely not there, which is lame because who puts a picture of a statue on a museum shirt when you really don't have the statue there. Who knows, it might still be there.... but we eventually gave up, rode the tube home, and now we're here in the center. 

The lovely British Museum! 

At the restaurant where we had lunch today. (Me, Tricia, Allison, and Kaitlin)

The Arch Queen Victoria dedicated to Prince Anthony! So pretty! A very cool find of ours :)

Queen Victoria with Kensington Palace in the back! 

                           This is the back of Kensington Palace seen on our little walk through Hyde Park. 

Official 1st day in London

I know I just posted a few hours ago, but here's an update of the official first day. 

We (me and 9 other kids) flew in and took what is called a "dot to dot" to get to our center. It was just a shuttle that took us straight to the London center from the airport. We considered just taking the tube, but this was a TON easier and safer and actually pretty fun. It was nice to be able to just look around and take in all the landscape. We had fun looking around and trying to get used the fact that we were, and are, in London, England. It is so surreal. Hard to believe at times. ALL times. 

I checked into our AWESOME center. It houses a billion people, it feels like, and it is going to be an interesting experience to say the least. I'm living in Dorm #3 which is just the dorm on the 3rd floor. There are about 14 girls living in this dorm. We have a great deal more space than we were originally planning on, which is nice, but it makes me wish I'd brought more stuff. Haha The scary part of this living situation is the fact that the 14 of us get to share 2 showers. I repeat, 2. It should work out okay if everyone is fast and some girls shower and night and all that. I'm not too worried, but you never know. 

I've made a couple fun friends and will continue to make them. :) Actually a girl named Catelyn from my gymnastics class Winter Semester is here. She and I are in the same room and we're bunk mates and everything. It'll be fun to get to know her a little better! 

Just a little bit ago, a group of us went on our first "walk." We have these books that are full of maps and step-by-step instructions of how to get around. They also give us lots of fun, interesting details about the area that we are currently in depending on where we are. It turned out to be pretty fun (even though it took us a while to discover that the street signs are on the buildings...) and we learned a little too :) Our neighborhood is pretty awesome. We're right in Palace Court in Notting Hill. There seems to be a lot going on around here. We ran into some pretty interesting folks and really enjoyed getting more familiar with the area. I especially loved a little row of houses that had all different color front doors. I thought they were fun and I took a bunch of pictures too. (It reminded me lots of 101 dalmations!) I'm really going to like living here! 

So far, I like all the people a lot! There are 5 boys and, I think, 38 girls. Its pretty tight and we'll feel like a big group when we're all in the same room. I've met a few girls that I really like and I'm pretty sure we'll be spending a hunk of time together. There's a handful of girls who want to go running occasionally and I'm planning on joining them as soon as my toe doesn't hurt so much (Thanks Trev) and that might be a fun experience as well. 

I'm really looking forward to all of this! Its going to be so fun! We're planning on walking through and playing in Hyde Park tonight after dinner (Its literally RIGHT by us) until we pass out. That shouldn't take too long because we are all SOOO tired. A bunch of us are sitting in our room right now practically asleep by doing our best to stay awake. It sure is a challenge to say the least. 

I'll post again tomorrow and maybe put some more pictures up too! Hope that everyone is having fun and doing well! Miss you all! 

Traveling!

Well Folks! It finally came! I'm offically in London, England now for the next 2 months. 

Basically, travel here was pretty much a nightmare. I didn't sleep at all and I'm looking forward to a pretty rough next few days. The first flight was nice. I read one of the books Brianna gave me and met up with some fun ladies! It went by really fast!

The second flight was murder. I'm just glad its over. haha But everything here is beautiful! 

I don't have a lot of time right now, but I'll probably write another post tonight before bed. Here are some pictures!

                     The view from our window! This rocks! ALL the buildings are soo cool!

                     Buddies in JFK just before taking off for London!

6 More Days!

I leave in 6 days for London! I can't believe how fast this time has flown by! I am just posting to ask for any advice with packing or anything. I kinda don't know what to take or what to buy there. If you know of anything let me know. Just leave a comment. Thanks