WIMBLEDON

Today we finally went to Wimbledon, which is only like a mile from my church, who knew.  Anyway, I like to think I’m the expert on tennis here but Shelby and Anna are tennis goers too.  The three of us, Jordan, and Brooklinn and Rachel went out but the last two didn’t take the tour.  Touring the All England lawn Tennis Club was definitely a highlight of this trip.  I had the same feeling I had when I left Singing in the Rain.  We couldn’t stop smiling.  We were so giddy.  Wimbledon as a whole was smaller than I expected but I didn’t care because I still couldn’t believe I was at Wimbledon. WIMBLEDON.  We were taken around the courts, Henman Hill, and the interview room, where we got to sit in the exact same chairs as tennis legends have interviewed.  How I wish I could be here during the tournament and then the Olympics only 3 weeks after.  Our guide said the ground crews have been preparing for the past two years to re-grow the grass in that time.  She also told us that for Wimbledon they train 300 local school-aged tennis players to be ball boys and girls, but in the end they only use 200 of them.  Too bad for the other 100, with my luck I would probably be one of the unfortunate kids so it’s a good thing I’m not a local.

After Wimbeldon I went with Shelby and Anna to Camden Market cause they were craving donuts.  After a long day all over town and riding the tube for at least two hours we were home right in time for conference at 5.  The time difference is actually kind of nice because we had all day to do stuff but still get spiritually enlightened without wasting our day.  Now Kaylee, Christi, and I are just eating our Domino's pizza and waiting another hour before the second session to begin.  I just wish I were home in my pajamas cuddled with a blanket watching conference on my big comfy couch.  Only 13 more days until I'll be reunited with my comfy couch...and bed.

Henman Hill with Shelby, Jordan, and Anna

Centre Court!

I guess my Aussie boyfriend digs Brits

look who I found!

This commercial pretty much sums up my day since I started it out at Tesco and then traveled to Wimbledon

Kew and Kahns

I feel like since the semester is winding down so are my blogposts.  The big trips are over.  I've seen most of the museums and done most of the touristy stuff.  But today we took our last "big" day trip to Kew Gardens.  It really wasn't big and it didn't really take all day.  We took the district line out at 10:30 and Kaylee, Christi, and I were back at 1:15.  The garden was ginormous but the flowers haven't bloomed yet so it was underwhelming.  It's apparently the most famous garden in northern Europe, so I'll take their word for it.

The sun was shining though, and we wanted to be outside so we headed back to Bayswater and got some take-away from Kahns on Westbourne Grove.  On the way we walked through Whiteley's and stopped at Cranberry.  You can purchase deliciousness in a bag for only a couple pounds.  Rachel told me about this stand and I purposely stayed away for fear of becoming addicted.  Good thing I held off until now because I definitely will be going back at least once before I leave in two weeks.  So with our curry and candy in hand we headed over to Kensington to have a picnic.  While the other two laid out, I finished my reading for Tuesday.  Since that's done, I can relax tonight.  I'm staying home because I've been out the last couple of nights and I just want to hang out here.  Plus, I'm performing in the talent show on Sunday with the Mason girls so we're going to practice.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Simon Seville - one of the chipmunks at Whiteley's

After practice:

Practicing a Disney song is hard with little girls, especially when one doesn't know it and the other one belts it.  Ellie got really tired by the end of it.  I just had to snatch these photos of her.  Just letting you know, I did not tell her to pose.  These are 100% candid.

But we made it through.  We celebrated by taking pictures after:

Hannah and Ellie

Rachel, Hannah, and Ellie

I'm Gonna Soak Up The Sun

Usually I hate warm weather that doesn't require some kind of sweater or sweatshirt when you go outside.  However, today I wanted to soak up every minute I could of the crisp spring day.  So, in between English 395 and Religion, which was our last, I packed my Cath Kidston bag and headed to Kensington Park.

part of the class with Brother Jones

  I first chose a nice tree on the south side of the palace and then moved to a bench.

After religion class, which was our last, I headed back over to Kensington but this time by the pond.  It was so nice to be outside in a park...and so did everyone else.  There seriously were thousands of other people there today.  It was like a public swimming pool on a hot July day.

After dinner I still hadn't been outside enough so Kaylee and Christi invited me on their walk.  We first walked down through Holland Park and then came back and walked down Embassy Row.  Once we were at Kensington High Street we walked down the south side of Kensington Palace and then back up through Embassy Row.  We saw some lights on in the palace and loitered to see if we could spot a royal.  We spot a young man in a striped blue casual collared shirt who had dark hair.  We want to pretend it was Harry in his new bachelor pad, but it probably wasn't.  After stalking the royals we made a quick pit stop back home and then walked down Bayswater til we hit Lancaster Gate.  At that time we had been out almost 2 1/2 hours so we decided to call it a night.  Christi did the calculations and figured out that we walked 5.6 miles.  Not bad for a nighttime stroll.

Imperial War Museum

Today we took a field trip to the Imperial War Museum.  Dad would've loved this museum, and I would've loved going through it with him.  I've been excited for this museum all semester.  Call me weird, but I love WWII and that whole era.  I think it's fascinating.  I realized I looked like a little school boy walking around with my camera clicking away pictures non-stop.

Even though we went as a group I ended up going through 99% of the museum by myself because I went at a little slower pace.  There were exhibits on various different wars, the holocaust, and heroes.  They also recreated the trenches from WWI.  I didn't really want to go in by myself because it was dark so I waited for a couple to go in and I followed.  Good thing too because some girls were in there pretending to be wax figures trying to scare their friend.  I don't know if they scared her, but they sure scared me.

At first I wasn't going to go into the holocaust exhibit but decided to turn around and walk through.  I'm glad I did.  Yes, it was terribly depressing and I even shed some tears, but I was overcome with a wave of emotion.  I'm so grateful for the freedom that I have in America and am even more grateful for those who have fought and continue to fight for me today.  I couldn't help but think of my cousin Troy who is in the Army right now.  He served in Iraq for a couple of years and is now in Germany.  From the pictures he has shown us, I have caught a glimpse of the horror and devastation our soldiers see everyday.  I'm eternally grateful for Troy and the other men and women who put their lives on the line for me everyday.  We're excited for him to come home next month for good.

In other news guess who just moved next door?  Prince Harry!  Now both the royal Princes and Princess Kate live on the grounds of Kensington Palace.  I still have two weeks to catch a glimpse of a royal.  Wish me luck!

It's my blog so I can post two times a day if I want to

This is more for me than for my audience, which consists of probably 3 people.

We voted to have a talent show before we leave but no one really signed up, so naturally our professor decided to sign up for us.  This is the email we just received with the line-up.

Gotta love those Masons.

Another Sunny Day in London

Alexis, Kaylee, and I in Regents Park

Today's activities included:

two loads of laundry, Regents Park (with the class), Christmas Shop off London Bridge tube stop, walking along the Thames, walking over Millennium Bridge, riding an authentic double decker to Trafalgar Square, and getting some serious reading done on the tube ride home....and this was all by 2 P.M.

Christi showed me this music video and I'm a little embarrassed to say that I'm obsessed.  I know they're like 5  British Justin Biebers but the song is pretty catchy.  The video takes place all over London and coincidentally I saw a lot of places where they filmed today.  So if the photos aren't enough watch this video and you'll see what my day was like...

except without the music and fans chasing after me.  I told them to take the day off cause they still have 2 more weeks to follow me around.

Spring has sprung

It's downright spring here.  I wanted to take advantage of the summertime weather so Kaylee and Christi accompanied me down to the Shepherds Bush Market to buy some lace my mom semi-requested.  My mom has talked about this market so I've known about it for a couple of years.  There's also some fabric stores in the states named Shepherds Bush after this market so I was expecting something somewhat nice.  Sorry to say mom I was really surprised (and not in a good way).  You might not be getting lace, I couldn't find any that was even remotely nice.  There were a couple stores with fabric but most of them had little trinkets and junky stuff you would find at a yard sale.

After being disappointed that I couldn't find mom lace I decided not to let my outing be spoiled so I said goodbye to Christi and Kaylee and did some much needed grocery shopping at Morrisons.  The weather was so nice outside that I wanted to soak in the sun.  So with my authentic Cath Kidston bag and my grocery bag in hand I walked the two tube stops back home.  I skipped out on the tube for two reasons: 1) the weather obviously 2) I've definitely gained weight here and so I thought the first step to losing that said weight is walking everywhere when possible.  It felt refreshing to walk home plus I totally looked like a local!  It's nice to know my way around enough that I can now look at things around me.  For instance, on my way home I observed everyone and their dog on walks, a group of uniformed school kids who had serious anger issues, and only 1 instead of the 5 usual policeman guarding the Russian embassy.

We had an early dinner because tonight we saw War Horse, Rachel's all-time favorite play!  Actually I went to this play with a bad attitude because I've heard Rachel talk about it before.  I knew it was long and they used puppets.  I don't know why but I pictured hand puppets.  As you can see by the picture they definitely were not hand puppets.  The horses actually moved and sounded like real horses but it was weird to see 10 (including the men inside the horse) legs instead of 4.  The play was really long and the whole storyline was kinda ridiculous but other than that it wasn't half bad.  I want to see the movie now.  Good thing it'll probably be in redbox by the time I get home.