Perfect pick-me-up

Last night I completely broke down and sobbed to my parents on skype.  Yes, I admit it; I won't deny that I have been extremely homesick lately.  Everywhere I go in the center there is always another student occupying the space and I was about to go crazy.  I haven't truly had anyone to vent to so naturally when I talked to my parents the tears burst out.  I really didn't have a reason to cry but I just needed to let all my emotions out.  My mom encouraged me to just get out of the center by myself and do something.  So today I did.  It wasn't anything amazing or expensive but it was a perfect pick-me-up.  Every now and then I look at Rachel's London blog to get an idea of stuff to do.  I remembered she had posted about a little church in the neighborhood so I ventured out to find it.  I jotted down the directions from the above map but I took a wrong turn down Hereford Road.  I soon realized I wasn't where I was suppose to be but it felt so good to be out I decided I didn't care if I was "lost".  I was heading nowhere and anywhere at the same time.  

While strolling in the Notting Hill neighborhood I stumbled upon a different church.  I love the churches here because they are everywhere and they're all unique (pretty much).  I turn a corner and voila, there's another church nestled in between rows of homes.  This one was called St. Stephens, or something like that, I don't remember (see left picture).  At first I thought it was the church Rachel talked about but I was wrong.  I finally found that church an hour and a half after leaving the center.  I walked into St. Mary of the Angels for a minute and just sat (see right picture).  It wasn't magnificent in size or architecture.  It was simple and quaint.

Thanks for the suggestion mom.  Now I feel recharged and ready to go to Paris tomorrow.  Plus, I promise my posts will be more positive from here on out!  

Until Friday.

A little note

Dear Sunday,

I love you dearly but I thought you were supposed to be the day of rest.  Why is it then you are the busiest day of the week?

Dear America,

How I miss you so.  Living here has only made me appreciate you even more.  I truly bleed red, white, and blue.

Dear bedroom,

Thank you for being small enough that I need to clean you routinely.  I can’t wait to get back to a clean room where I have a clear path to walk.  I can also call you my own!

Dear Cadbury chocolate,

Curse you.  Because of you I have gained weight.  I’m determined to give you up until my last week in Europe.  I just love you too much; it’s for your own good.

Dear mountains,

I miss you especially bad this week.  Without you I can never tell which direction I am pointing.  My only consolation is knowing that you’ll still be there when I return.  I may even cry of happiness when we meet again.

Dear Cafe Rio and My Thai,

I don't know which one of you I miss more.  It might be a tie.  Londoners don't know what they're missing.  Just know that you will be my first meals when I return to Utah.

Dear silence,

PLEASE come back to the center.  This weekend was so blissful with you here.  I’m afraid we won't know each other again until St. Patrick’s Day when most of the students travel again.  I'm happy to stay here just for you.

Dear Paris,

I anticipate our meeting on Tuesday.  I think you and I will get along very well.

Dear Golds Gym,

I never thought I would say this, but I miss you terribly.  See you in April!

Dear Family,

I love and miss you all so much.  Granted, I have a family of 51 here but I would trade them all for my little family of 6.  I miss you!

Buck-Boro-SStQ

It's a miracle, I actually got 9 hours of sleep last night.  And my day only got better from there.  A group of us headed down to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard.  I was surprised it was as crowded at is was even though it isn't tourist season.  I guess it is a Saturday and today the weather was absolutely wonderful again, so naturally it would be busy.  Next time we go we're leaving two hours early to get a better view.

Anna, Emma, Mikelle, Sarah, me, Matt, and Christi

From Buckingham Palace we went down to Borough Market for lunch.  I love this market.  Even if you don't buy anything it's definitely worth going just to walk around.  Last time for lunch I got a chicken wrap, which was pretty good, but this time I got something even better.  Grilled Cheese.  The bread was perfectly toasted and in addition to cheese they put this good onion mix in it too.  It was super delicious but it made me thirsty and it was oober rich.  I couldn't finish mine.

From there we walked down to the National Theatre for the production of She Stoops to Conquer.  To tell you the truth I wasn't looking forward to this play at all.  The past couple of plays we've been too as a group have been a little questionable.  This one did have a few things that I would change but overall it was my favorite play that I've seen so far and I'd definitely go see it again.  It had music, humor, FABULOUS actors, and was overall just great.  Do you recognize the lady in the picture to the right?  I did when she came on stage but I couldn't figure out what she has been in.  As many of you know, it drives me nuts if I can't remember what other stuff an actor has appeared in.  It drove me nuts the whole two and a half hours.  I had to look her up when I got home and right before I IMDB'd her it clicked, I remembered.  She is on the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma.  Figure it out yet?  She plays Miss Bates.  More recently she also appeared in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.  Mafalda Hopkirk, anyone?  Ya, I didn't know who that was either.  So I had to google it (refer to second picture).  She is the lady that Hermione impersonates to get into the Ministry of Magic.  So now this is the 4th Harry Potter actor I have seen since being here.  The other three being Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), and Jamie Campbell Bower (young Grindelwald).  He appears for less than 30 seconds but he also is in The Twilight Saga, and he happens to be Bonnie Wright's fiancé.  I walked behind him a couple weeks ago on Bayswater.  We're convinced he and Bonnie Wright live around here somewhere.

....oh and I forgot to mention that Sophie Thompson, the lady from the play, is also Emma Thompson's kid sister.  Cool, huh?

she's the one with the pinstripe jacket

Even though it is a Saturday night we decided to stay in and soak up the peace and solitude of the center before everyone returns from their travels tonight...plus, I have to read part of A Tale of Two Cities.  Ugh.

Feed the Birds

     Can I just say it is so nice to be home while half of the students are traveling.  It's so peaceful and it actually feels like I have space to breathe.  If only they never came back... just kidding, it would get pretty lonely around here.
     For the second time this semester we woke up to waffles for breakfast.  The waffles here are so good because they have this like sugar coating on them.  I definitely couldn't eat them everyday because as Jordan said this morning, "you can feel the cavities coming in as you eat them."  But boy are they good...but not as good as my moms.  After breakfast we all went back to bed for a couple more hours before leaving for the day.  I started out by catching the 94 bus down to and hopping off at Marble Arch for Primark with Anna, Mikelle, and Sarah.  I bought a green shirt and a scarf with zebras on it.  I should feel guilty because I bought stuff there last night, but I never shop so I can justify my purchases.  Plus, it only cost £6.
     From there we met some more girls at St-Martin-in-the-Fields for a free lunchtime piano concert.  I got to listen to some Debussy, whom I'm actually growing to enjoy.  Before it started, as usual they asked everyone to turn off pagers, cell phones, and any noise making device.  I'm used to not carrying a phone by now so I just ignored the instruction.  Wrong call.  I should've checked anyway because after the first piece some persons phone started ringing quite loud.  It took me a second to realize that it was mine ringing.  Woops.  I forgot that I had brought my international phone with me.  I told Cami I would take it so she could meet up with us later.  I would've just turned in on silent but the phone has no volume button anywhere and no way to turn it on vibrate.  Oh well, at least it didn't ring in the middle of the performance.
     Next our plan was to rent some bikes and ride around Kensington and Hyde Park, but seeing as we had 9 girls it was hard to find 9 bikes on a Friday afternoon.  We ended up just feeding the birds instead and I had the whole time I had the tune of "Feed the birds" from Mary Poppins stuck in my head.  It got pretty annoying, although that didn't matter because it was an absolutely lovely day.  The sun was shining, and the weather was cool and crisp.  After a while it got cloudy and cold but for the most part it felt like spring.

     Can you believe today is the half way mark?!  49 days down.  49 to go.  On one hand it feels like it's going by extremely fast, but on the other hand it feels like I'm never going to get back to Utah.  I've learned to love London and am pretty attached to it.  I know I'll have a really difficult time leaving, especially since I know I may not be back for many, many, many years.  But for now I try not to think about it, and just enjoy every minute of this once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

“Sometimes we let our thoughts of tomorrow take up too much of today. Daydreaming of the past and longing for the future may provide comfort but will not take the place of living in the present. This is the day of our opportunity, and we must grasp it.”

-President Thomas S. Monson

Palace Park and Primark

Compared to last week this week has been pretty great, which is ironic because I had all my tests.  Many good things have happened this week amid the stress though.  First, I lived through my tests.  Second, I got one of my tests back to find I got an A on it.  Boo-yeah.  Third, it was a gorgeous day today.

After morning classes (which were shortened) I headed over to Kensington Gardens with my religion book and enjoyed the cool brisk air.  About two minutes after I sat down on my comfortable bench a dog came out of nowhere and jumped up beside me.  Those who know me know I'm not the best person with dogs, in fact I don't do well around most every dog, especially when it comes in physical contact with me.  Anyway I'm sitting on a bench, right?  So I can only move so far back before the dog hops on my lap and licks my mouth.  LICKS my mouth.  YUCK!!!!  I hate even touching dogs and this one was giving me a full on slobbery saliva-y smooch.  Remember I am on a bench and have limited mobility, so thank goodness my mouth was closed.  After the owner sauntered over and mumbled "get down" to his dog and semi-nodded at me, I promptly got my hand sanitizer out and profusely wiped my mouth.  I guess that stuff isn't toxic on your mouth because I'm still alive to tell this tale.

Following that episode I was able to sit back and enjoy the day.  I read about Victoria and Kensington Palace while sitting in front of Kensington Palace, which was pretty awesome being right outside the gate of Kensington Palace.  I was sitting by the pond and it got windy just in time to head home for religion class.  In class we are talking about the original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the missionaries that first came to Great Britain.  Thanks to the Church history class I took last semester and my parents, I was able to contribute a lot in class today, especially because we talked a ton about Orson Hyde.  Talking about Orson Hyde and soaking in some sun made me miss this:

Right now I'm lovin' being home at the center.  Exactly one half of the students are gone traveling this weekend.  I'm so glad I'm not traveling, it's way too stressful.  So instead of spending money on traveling I spent a few pounds tonight at Primark.  I bought a cute blue scarf for 3 pounds and a bright yellow tee-shirt for 1 pound.  It's definitely a shirt to sleep in because it's not super fashionable and it's a mens XXL.  Although, we might have to break them out in March because apparently a couple of the boys are planning on doing Mustache March.  Courtney and I can represent the girls by sporting these around.  We can just call it Mustache Mullet March, right?

Cramming Completed

It feels pretty darn good to be done with mid-terms.  I just finished taking my European Studies 336 one and boy am I glad it is over.  The test covered history from pre-Roman Britain all the way to the eighteenth century.  That's a lot to cover.  That's a lot to learn.  That's a lot to study, especially because we were only give the review sheet two days ago.  The majority of students basically had 22 hours to cram because of the English 395 mid-term yesterday afternoon.  Unfortunately for me, I was one of the students who only had a pin hole sized amount of time to prepare.  Blast.  The hardest was planning for the essays.  We were told to prepare for all four prompts that were on the review sheet but we would only have to write on one of them.  Problem was we didn't get to choose which prompt we would address.  Of course, with my luck I got the one that everyone was dreading they would get.  Double blast.  The good news is I lived through it.  I know I didn't pass with flying colors and in the long run I won't remember this specific test; however, the important thing to me is knowing I used my time wisely and prepared as best as I could.  I tried my hardest and that's all that matters.

This test also reminded me of the power of prayer.  Earlier today, when a mental car crash occurred in my head because of all the information that was muddled in my brain, I decided to take a break.  Usually I check facebook or blog surf, but instead I chose to go read a few chapters from my scriptures.  The perfect de-stressing remedy.  Right now I am reading in Mosiah about Alma and the people before they reach Zarahemla.  The message that has great importance to me especially today is found in Mosiah 24:12-15.  This is exactly what I needed to read before my test.  It helped me calm down and remember that through prayer I can turn to my Heavenly Father for help anytime, anywhere, in any situation.  I knew that the best way to do well was to humbly ask my Heavenly Father for help.  I knew He would place the information I had learned and studied into my memory because I had put forth my best effort into studying.  It is such a comfort to know that whatever I may be going through even if it is as small as a test, I always have someone to turn to.

"Prayer is your direct line to Heavenly Father.  With His plan you have unlimited minutes,
no roaming charges, and you'll never get a busy signal.  Use it anytime, anywhere."

Study day? I think yes.

Just finished my English 395 midterm, second one of the week.  Now I just have one left to take.  Phew!  It's the one I'm most worried for because we just got the review sheet yesterday and there are 40 terms and 4 different possible essays that we have to prepare for.  I wouldn't be so worried if it was about American history but it is about European history, which covers thousands of more years than America's 400 or so.  Therefore, for the rest of the day I will be hunkering down and working on my review sheet, only taking a break for dinner....and maybe to indulge in some photoboothing.

me showing my love for swedish fish by giving it a peck on the lips 

Thanks for the package mom.  It's nice to get some quality American candy around here.  Plus, you know me well....I love swedish fish and have actually been craving some lately.

Phantom of the Opera

♪Woke up in London yesterday (really today) found myself in the city near Piccadilly♪

Today I took my first test here in the center.  I'm so glad to have English 300 under my belt, although I still have two to go this week.  Even though I have tests I am so spoiled here for a couple reasons.

1. Tonight I went to Phantom of the Opera.  I'm lucky that I can hop on the tube at Queensway and hop off at Piccadilly Circus, and go to a number of shows within minutes of home.  I wasn't planning on seeing phantom while I was here but the group got pretty cheap tickets so I decided I wouldn't miss any opportunity to see a show so I went.  The staging was phenomenal and I would go again (actually, probably not) just to see the set transitions.  Overall the production was pretty good.  The actors individually?....eh they weren't amazing but they were ok singers.  I guess I'm just used to the original recording and the movie soundtrack, so naturally it doesn't sound as good live.  Although, I'll probably have the music stuck in my head for the next three days.

2.  I'm so close to other countries so I get to travel.  This week I have to endure through 3 tests (ugh!), but next week I get to celebrate by heading off to France for a couple of days.  I'm so excited to visit Paris, especially because I don't have to take a plane to get there!  Woot, woot!

3.  The weather.  I love gloomy, rainy weather.  Weird, I know.  It has only rained a couple of times while I've been here but I love how it is usually overcast.  Though I do appreciate the days when it is sunny and nice as well.

courtesy of google

Yesterdays post....today

I'm sorry if I've seemed a little cranky lately.  I promise I'm not trying to be.  But it's hard to vent all my feelings to anyone here when I live with them and do everything with them.  Plus things are getting better between students.  Ever since the one student got sent home last week I feel like some students are making an extra effort to be nice to everyone.  In the last week I have talked to many students who I usually never utter a word to.  Although there are some bad days I really do love it here and I can't believe this week is the half way point.  I'm trying not to think about it even when I do have a bad day in London.

stolen from my friend Shelby's blog

Yesterday was a good day.  I got to go to church, the weather was lovely, I saw my friend Caity get hit on on the train by some guy named Lee, eat edible food (Matt and Stacies family cooked lasagna), and I skyped with Chol, Erin, Rae Fish, Tess, and Cara.

It was a good day.

Avebury/Bath/Wales/Stourhead/Stonehenge/Chawton

First stop of the day yesterday: Avebury.  

This is like a stonehenge but older.  I'm still not exactly sure the significance of it so according to wikipedia it is a neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles which is located around the village of Avebury.  To me it was just little rocks.  I appreciate history just as much as the next guy but I'm not sure why we even made a stop.

Second stop of the day yesterday: Bath

I loved bath.  It's probably been my favorite place that we've visited outside of London so far.  For those of you who aren't Jane Austen lovers, Bath is where many characters in Austen's novels go to for holiday.  This is also where Captain Wentworth and Miss Elliot get engaged in the end of Persuasion my favorite Austen novel.  I loved seeing the terraced houses and the wide streets, plus picturing Captain Wentworth strolling these streets didn't hurt either.

While (or whilst as the British say) in Bath we saw the Roman Baths, the house of the guy who discovered Uranus, the Royal Crescent, and the fashion museum in the Assembly Rooms.

Last stop of the day: Wales!

I'm Walish.  I know that's not even a word but before I knew the correct term I use to tell my friends that I was Walish.  Well I visited the land of my forefathers yesterday.  We crossed into Wales and headed to the St. Fagan Natural History Museum.  I actually really enjoyed this except due to traffic we only had 30 minutes.  After that we headed to the hotel and then were free.  Sarah and I were roommates and we ended our night by doing an ab workout.  

Sadly, we didn't have much time in Wales because I would've loved to go more places and gotten more pictures of the motherland.

First stop of today: Stourhead

This is where Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth in the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice.  It was beautiful even though it was winter; I can only imagine how gorgeous it is in the summer.

Second stop of the day: Stonehenge

I was very underwhelmed with stonehenge.  It is right off the highway and there are tourists everywhere.  Plus it was windy and cold.  Thankfully we got on the coach right when it started to rain.

In case you think I part my hair like that, I don't.  It was a very windy day

Last stop of the day: Chawton

Jane Austen's home.  By this time it was raining and cold and windy and my neck hurt from trying to sleep on the coach.  Note to self: do everything you can to get a seat to yourself.  I tried two days in a row unsuccessfully and boy was I glad to get out of that cramped smoke smelling (the driver always darted out of the bus whenever we stopped so he could have a smoke) bus.  I'm am thankful for Chug more than ever.

J. Bruce

Today I am dedicating this post to my pops.  Every girl (and boy) should be jealous of me because I truly have the greatest dad in the world, he blows your dad out of the water!  I don't know any man who can surpass him.  Words cannot begin to express the love I have for my father; however, I want to tell you some of his many qualities in no particular order.  Beware the list is kind of long-

yes, his eyes are closed but I love this picture

He loves his family and the gospel more than anything in the whole world.  He lives in a way that exemplifies Christlike attributes.  He never raises his voice to his children.  He is the most selfless and patient person I know.  He supports me in everything that I do even if it means taking off whole days of work to be there for me.  He constantly reminds me that he loves me.  He makes me feel like I'm the most important girl in the world.  He never fails to make me laugh.  He lets me watch train movies with him.  He is good about spending time with each individual daughter.  He is always there to listen whenever I need to talk.  He puts up with all of the girl drama that goes on in our house.  He is more than happy to help with homework and Church talks.  He always makes me feel safe and cared for.  He sings along in the car with me.  He loves sharing stories about his childhood and his family.  He loves Ogden, and Utah.  He always waits on the front porch and watches me drive away to make sure I get off safely when I leave to go back to Provo.  He has spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on the tennis court helping us improve our game.  He fills up Chug (my car) with gas, and if it snows he wipes the snow off the car before I wake up in the morning.  He always finishes conversations by saying "is there anything we can do for you?"  He is always there to comfort me no matter what.  He does all the above mentioned things even when I act ungrateful for all the things that he does for me daily.  And my list could go on and on...

So today dad, this is for you.  

I am eternally grateful that I am your baby Ab.

  Happy Birthday to the greatest dad in the world.

I love you daddy.

St-Martin-in-the-Fields

Today like every other day this week was pretty uneventful.  I woke up, ate breakfast, and headed to English 395.  After class I went to Rymans to buy some flashcards, then I headed over to High Street Kensington to look around and bought some granola bars at Whole Foods.  I didn't want to take the tube back so I headed down Embassy Row past William and Kates future house (they don't move in until 2013) and went home.  Before our religion class we gathered in the classroom to finish The Queen.  We've been watching this movie in 395 and had to finish it.  It takes place during the aftermath of Princess Dianas death in 1997.  It shows how the royal family and how the government reacted to the tragedy.  It's a very interesting movie, I highly recommend it.

Tonight the group went to listen to the Brandenburg Concertos by candlelight at St-Martin-in-the-Fields.  I'm not a classical music fan and it got kind of boring, that is until Taylor saw a mouse scurry by Kaylee's foot.  She leaned over to tell me, trying to make it go unnoticed by the other girls in our booth.  Luckily it left our booth and we watched it scamper around across the isle and in between pews.  It was nibbling on something.  Gross.

Well I'm off to bed because at 6:30 in the morning I have to be on the bus ready to go to Wales!

Difficult day at the centre

I feel this week has been an off week here at the centre.  Traveling in small groups last week created some tension and drama between people due to various different things.  But today everything got a little worse.  This morning our professors informed us that one of the students got sent home because of some bad decisions he made while being here.  I wasn't particularly close to this student and while I can't help but to feel sorry for him because of the once in a lifetime experience he will miss, I believe the university made the right decision to send him home.  To the rest of the world it is a strange concept to have an honor code, nevertheless I appreciate that BYU does have one and that they don't make special exceptions for certain students.  We all know what the consequences are if we don't keep the honor code once we sign it.  I understand that occasionally it is hard for some students to live by the honor code, however I am grateful for the students who do live by it and who respect it.  Since this morning I feel like everyone has been moping around all day.  It was the right choice to send him home but it is hard because there is definitely a void in the house now knowing that we have one less student here.  Hopefully things will get better here because as President Monson states-

‎"Life is perfect for none of us. Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life." 

Modern art is weird

Today we were assigned to visit the Tate Modern museum.  I wasn't planning on going here at all because I was told it wasn't worth it if you don't like modern art.  Well I don't like most modern art so I definitely was not excited to go but it was mandatory.  We had to get the audio guide and I started looking through the different pieces of art that were on it and I found some that I recognized from my American Humanities class last semester.  I still don't like modern art and there were some pieces that were just plain disturbing but it was cool to know a little bit about the artists from last semester.  The one painting I really wanted to see was Summer by Jackson Pollock.  To my disappointment that part of the museum was closed for some reason.  I was surprisingly pretty upset about it.  Not because I didn't get to view 7 more rooms of strange artwork (I would pass on that any day) but because I wanted to see one up close, plus last semester some girls and I "recreated" a Pollock for our final project in Am. Hum. (if you want to watch it click here).

This mirror is art?!

After my disturbing day at the Tate we got home to a lovely surprise on our beds.  One of the boys here bought every girl a rose, which made a lot of girls' day.  Some girls wanted to go see The Vow so I had two options: go out or stay home and do homework.  I took Rachel's advice to never miss an opportunity to do something fun, so I went out.  I wondered how it would be with 34 emotional single girls watching a chick flick on Valentines Day.  Luckily it wasn't too bad and there were surprisingly a lot of males in the theater, albeit most of them were undoubtedly dragged to it by their girlfriends and wives.  Overall it wasn't too bad of a holiday, and I am to see (or not see) fewer couples out in public tomorrow.

ALSO

Shout out to my big sis Erin because it's her birthday.  Boo-yeah.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Er, I hope you have a great day.  Miss you!

Not my typical day

It's been great being back in London.  At first I was in a bad mood because I was so tired of being around people but today I got out by myself for a little while, which was sorely needed.  I was going to walk down Embassy Road and then stroll back through Kensington Gardens.  I had to buy something at Boots on Bayswater so I decided to run my errand before I went on my leisurely walk.  Well my plans were turned upside down by the rain so instead of going on a walk by myself I headed back to the center to do some homework.  Blast.  I still didn't want to be cooped up all day reading Imperial Island and thankfully Mikelle had a bright idea that included going out and getting homework done.  So ten minutes later Sarah, Mikelle, Lyssa, and I were out the door heading to Notting Hill Gate bus station.  For the next three hours we hopped on a bus and jumped off when it terminated.  4 buses later we returned home just in time for dinner.  Surprisingly I got a lot of reading done.  It was the perfect equilibrium between being productive and having something to distract me when I got bored of reading.

My gloomy day turned pretty bright because I wasn't stuck here all day.  Plus, I'm on top of homework which feels pretty darn good.  And most importantly I'm restored to my happy state.

Tonight = Madness of King George

Béseme, Barcelonaaa!

Wednesday

Thinking it would be a good idea to stay up as last as possible the night before, I went to bed at 1 A.M. and woke up at 3 to leave for the Stansted Airport.  That ended up being a bad idea because I woke up terribly tired and with a horrible headache.  And to make matters worse the back of the plane seats was an obnoxious bright yellow color, which didn’t help my headache at all.  Plus, you know you’re on a European flight when they play Mozart music while you board the plane.  Luckily my headache went away once we got into Barcelona though.  After figuring out how to get into town on the train we had a while before we could check into our apartment.  Obviously I wanted to document this trip so when we were walking around I went to pull out my camera.  Bad news.  I couldn’t find it.  Where the heck was it?!  I had packed it the night before and then when I went out to dinner I took it out of my bag and put it in my purse just in case I wanted to used it that night.  Well I guess I had forgotten to put it back in my Spain bag.  Thank goodness the other girls were kind enough to take plenty of pictures of me with their cameras.  Pretty sure I got kind of annoying asking all the time for a picture.  Never again am I going to forget my camera.

We stayed in a relatively nice neighborhood that was a five-minute walk from the Sagrada Família, which is a large Roman Catholic Church.  We totally lucked out with our lodging arrangements.  Mikelle found this little apartment for really cheap so we stayed there for three nights.  Since there were only 7 beds and 8 girls I shared beds with Emma and Becca.  The three of us fit pretty snug on the two beds except for the big crack that the middle person had to sleep on.

We walked around the Sagrada Família and some cool hospital that was under construction.  After dropping our bags off at the apartment we went back to the Sagrada Família and toured inside.  Unfortunately the outside was under construction so we couldn’t see it in its entire splendor but it was breathtaking nevertheless.  We forgot that everything shuts down in the middle of the day and that the Spanish don’t eat dinner until late.  We tried to find a restaurant with some authentic Spanish food but all we could find were Italian restaurants.  I swear there were 5 pizza places on every block.  Apparently Spain doesn’t know they’re not in Italy.  So we ate dinner at an Italian place that had the most delicious pizza I have ever had.   One of them was just cheese but then it had an egg yolk on top that was actually pretty good.

Thursday

We walked up to Parc Güelle and wandered around there.  From there is a beautiful view of Barcelona.  After we walked back down to the Casa Míla and ate lunch on the way.  I had the grossest potato omelet thing.  I definitely don’t recommend it.  After lunch we toured Casa Míla and walked down Passeig de Gràcia, which is the main shopping street.  After dinner Mikelle, Lyssa, Becca, Emma, and I grabbed some gelato and walked over to the Arc de Triomf.  Don’t get it confused with the Arc de Triomph even though they look similar.  It was lit up and we got to watch some roller bladders in front of it.  As we headed home we walked passed some old bull-fighting stadium, which was pretty cool, although it was night and hard to see.

Friday

We strolled down La Rambla, and at Brooke’s suggestion went to Boquieria Market just off the side of the market.  I’m glad we did because we got the best juice there.  When we reached the end of La Rambla we ate paella on the pier and then sauntered down to the beach.  It was such a beautiful day.  Sunny and blue skies over the Mediterranean Sea, could you ask for much more?  We stayed at the beach for a while before making the long walk over to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc.  I had heard from multiple people that this was a must see show kind of like the Bellagio fountain show in Las Vegas.  Well when we got there we saw more construction.  After figuring out that there would be no fountain show we stayed and walked around the National Palace of Montjuïc to see the 1992 Olympic stadium.  It was getting dark and the park started getting a little sketchy, so disappointed and tired we headed back down and made the trek home.

Saturday

We strolled back down La Rambla and saw some more human statues because Emma had a specific pottery shop her parents wanted her to go to.  After the pottery shop we walked through the Gothic quarter to Parc de la Ciutadella where we took a little break because we were all so tired.  After enjoying a little breather we headed back through the Gothic quarter trying to find churros with chocolate (no success), but I did find some chucherías.  According to the Spanish dictionary this is just junk food.  In my families dictionary they are delicious licorice that are filled with some kind of something.  After finding the novelty, we finished our Barcelona adventure with making a few stops at stores on Passeig de Gràcia.  I got home at 1 A.M. and took a nice shower and hopped into my bed with clean sheets.  There are few things better than that!

Final Thoughts

Now that I have traveled completely on my own I’ve realized how hard it is to plan a vacation and how stressful it can be. I have gained a greater appreciation for my parents who have planned all of our family vacations for 6 people.  It’s always nice to go places but it’s even better coming home.  I had tons of fun in Spain but spending so much time with people it can get a little hard because everyone’s definition of vacation is different.  To me vacation is not relaxing.  It’s go, go, go from morning until night.  It can get a little discouraging because everyone goes at a different pace and you can't exactly tell them to hurry it up or get left.  It's fun traveling with friends but I'd much rather travel with my family!  Plus I don't feel bad about pestering people to take pictures of me when I don't have a camera.  Thinking of that, now I just have to go collect people’s camera cards so I can get those pictures.  So stick around and I’ll upload photos soon....

Palau Nacional 

Biggest Chupa Chups ever 

Mediterranean Sea

Sagrada Família

Parc Güelle

 Casa Míla 

Yet another building closed for construction.  If you can't tell, we're locked out.

Boquieria Market 

Me and Emma walking along the Mediterranean seaside

Productive day!

Today was probably one of the most productive yet unproductive days yet.  I didn't see anything spectacular (hence the unproductiveness) but I got a lot done.  I attended two classes, got my credit and debit card to work, dropped off some mail, exchanged some pounds into euros, went grocery shopping, planned a trip, did some laundry, finished a paper on Christopher Wren, and went to Tuk Tuk with Becca for dinner.  Productive?  I think yes.  See you in a couple of days after I get back from -

At least I noticed the Velazquez!

view from the national gallery

Do you understand the title of my post?  Only a real Gilmore Girls fan would, at least I hope they would.

     After classes today I needed to get out of the center.  Living in a house full of 35 girls is fun most of the time, but once in a while you just need alone time.  Well today was that day for me.  Obviously I'm use to living with girls because I have three sisters, but it's getting to the point where the students all know each other enough that people can get under other peoples skin.  I'm not saying that there is a specific person that I am around all the time that I had to get away, because there's not.  I just wanted to get out by myself, clear my head, and have some alone time.

     I thought about where to escape to that I could go at my own speed.  I realized I haven't been to many museums and time is running out fast.  I need to utilize my time in the smartest way possible.  So I was chose to go to the National Gallery by myself.  Sarah decided she wanted to join me so she accompanied me down to Trafalgar Square.  Once inside we split up and went at our own pace.  Though my family may be surprised to hear me say this, I actually really love art museums.  I hated them as a kid because I was dragged to museum after museum against my will :)  But now when I can go at my own pace I actually quite enjoy it, and the National Gallery has a plethora of paintings to enjoy.  It is full of works of art by Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Velazquez, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and many more!

     My favorite was definitely the impressionist collection.  I just love the different brushstrokes, textures, and colors and could look at impressionist paintings for hours on end.  Also it doesn't hurt that I learned about it last semester in my American Humanities class.

     After spending about an hour soaking in impressionism I continued on through the rest of the museum.  I don't really care about Italian, Roman, Spanish, etc. type of painting and frankly think it's kind of boring, so I sped through those rooms and made it through the whole museum.

     I had about 20 minutes to spare before I had to meet Sarah so I walked outside to get a picture of Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the background (see above).  I wasn't expecting to see a group of boys break dancing in front of the gallery.  They were actually pretty good.  So naturally being the girl that I am, I took a video of them.  Every time I would push stop on my camera they would do a really cool dance move so my video doesn't do them justice. (2 1/2 hours later) I've been sitting here doing homework and waiting for this video to load and it still hasn't after 2 1/2 hours.  Plus it has totally drained my computers battery, so I might just leave you to imagine the break dancing.

     Below are my favorite paintings from today.  The Degas one was too big to fit so I emphasized the tutus in the frame because that was my favorite part about the painting anyway.  I love the middle one because it reminded me of my dad.  He loves trains, and secretly I do too.  I liked the Pissarro painting because the painting depicts a wet street on a Paris night.  It's a little sentimental but whenever I see a picture like this or when there is a rainstorm at night, it reminds me of being a kid and looking out my bedroom window at lightning storms.  Summer storms are the best!  Some of my favorite memories as a kid are listening to the booms of thunder under my tent made of blankets or watching the lightning during a heavy rain storm.  Anyway, that's what this painting made me think of.

     My all time favorite of the impressionist paintings is called At the Theatre by Renoir.  I could look at it all day.  In fact I went back right before I left because I wanted to gaze at it one last time.  For this reason, it gets it own frame.

Left: Degas - Three Dancer in Violet Tutus
Middle: Monet - The Gare St-Lazare
Right: Pissarro - The Boulevard Montmartre at Night

At the Theatre by Renoir

Happenings at 27 Palace Court

     There’s snow in London!  It’s really the first snow of the year for me.  So of course what's the first thing that enters into a college students mind?  Make a snowman, so that is exactly what we did.  Sarah, Mikelle, and I ran outside in our pajamas and started packing the snow.  Ok, maybe I mostly watched them build the snowman but I did help lift the balls on top of each other.  After about 30 minutes I got too cold and wet because Mikelle was pelting me with snowballs so I came inside, only to be awakened at 1:15 A.M. by the girls to come see their surprise.  I reluctantly got out of my warm bed to see that they had beautified the snowman by making him into a dinosaur.  Using Brooke’s words I’ll say, “this is the best snowman EVO!!!”

     Exactly one month ago I left America.  This has been the longest time that I’ve been away from everything I know and love.  I miss Utah but I’m learning to love London.  It is definitely a different experience than I expected.  When I think about going home in two months I get excited but when I think about leaving London in two months I depresses me.  If only I could be in both places at the same time I would be perfectly content.  So for now I will enjoy all that England has to offer.

Chittock Walk

This morning Lyssa, Mikelle, Ashley, Sarah, Annie, Emma, and I took the train to Kent to meet President Chittock and his family.  President Chittock is the stake president and every semester he takes students on this 10 mile walk through the English countryside.  He usually does a fireside about growing up in war time London but sadly our schedules conflict so he won't be able to come; however, he and his brothers told Sarah and me a little about it today.  I loved hearing their stories about how they were taken away to Wales during the WWII to escape the bombing.

It was cold but worth it to get out of the city and the crowded house; and the views were breathtaking.  I loved talking to the Chittocks and hearing one of the elderly brothers teasingly tell Sarah to "shut up" after she offered to push him on the zip wire (as they call it here).

Emma and I

Countryside in Kent

V&A/Stratford/Warwick/Oxford

So the Internet has been really naughty lately and won’t work for me!  But I have a lot to catch up on over the last couple of days.  On Tuesday after class Sarah and I wanted to take advantage of the free couple of hours before dinner.  Instead of taking the tube we walked through Kensington Gardens to the Victoria and Albert museum.  This is my new favorite museum because there is so much to see there.  In the time we had we only got through two rooms and a hallway.  We saw Raphaelite paintings and awesome stained glass windows.

On Wednesday we left for our first overnight trip.  First we visited and walked around Chipping Campden, which is this adorable little village.  After that we visited Anne Hathaway’s (Shakespeare’s wife, not the actress) house, Shakespeare’s grave, and Shakespeare’s birthplace.  I got dad a souvenir at his birthplace, which I think he’ll appreciate but I haven’t sent it yet so I can’t say what it is.  I can tell you though that only our family will get a chuckle out of it.  My friends were really confused as to why I was buying this something for dad but it’s a family joke.  So dad, get excited.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Shakespeare's grave in the Trinity Church

Shakespeare's birthplace 

Stratford-Upon-Avon 

That night we went to the Taming of the Shrew performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.  I have mixed feelings about this play.  Parts of it were really funny and other parts were just unnecessary.  After a long day I finally got to crash at our bed and breakfast.  It was so nice to be somewhere where I don’t have to share a house with 45 other people.  The traditional English breakfast that we were fed in the morning was also really good.  The breakfast consisted of an egg, some Canadian bacon, tomato and mushroom (which I opted out of), and baked beans.  The baked beans were surprisingly good with the breakfast.

The second day we went to Warwick and Oxford.  Warwick is this castle that Madame Tussauds bought a while back and so it has kind of been Disney-fied. Seeing wax figures everywhere was interesting but it was cool to see what the castle would have looked like with real people in it.  From the top of on of the walls I saw my first British grass tennis courts.  It made me want to play tennis soooooooooo bad.  I’ve played on every type of court except grass so it looked really inviting.  After Warwick we stopped and toured Oxford.  It was bone-chilling cold and of course I forgot to pack my leggings even though I brought like 6 to London.  I was less impressed with Oxford than I thought I would be.  The buildings were pretty and all but because there are 30 some odd colleges there it was hard to see all the cool stuff.  Our tour guide did lead us to two Harry Potter film spots though.  We first visited the outside of the library and hospital wing and then the courtyard where Cedric Diggory sits in the tree in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The real waxy Queen Elizabeth

Just hangin' out with King Henry, his wives, and the Mason girls

Britain's version of Candid Camera

Grass tennis courts 

Warwick Castle

The very spot where Mad-Eye-Moody turns Malfoy into a ferret in
HP and the Goblet of Fire

Me, Becca, and Ashley

The Harry Potter hospital wing and library 

We are definitely not in Provo anymore 

Courtyard in HP 4

After we finished the tour we had about an hour and a half to tour the town.  We walked around a cute inside market, passed the first Ben’s Cookies, and ended at the store designed for tourists who want a sweatshirt.  I bought my first large purchase: an Oxford England tee-shirt that cost £5.

Today after 105%ing my London Walks final Cami and I spent the day shopping.  Most of my purchases came from Primark.  The most important being Kate Middleton’s engagement ring.  That’s right; Cami and I both bought one for dirt-cheap.  The good news is I saved my future fiancé £28,000.  The bad news is now I have to get someone to give me the ring.