I live my life!

It has been over a month since I have been home from England and I miss it so much.  My mind often wanders back to the moments that I experienced while in London.  I have to say that this experience was nothing of what I ever could have imagined.  I grew so much within those short two months.  I saw through Heavenly Fathers eyes and learned to have patience and love towards the people around me in England and even those in the program.  I see the world and the church in a whole new way.  

The last days in London were bitter sweet.  I made some really great friends and I just hope I'll never forget these amazing experiences and people that I met there.  I felt it was time for me to go home, but I knew London would always have a place in my heart.  And it has so far, but then again I feel like I dreamed it all.  It is so hard remembering some of my experiences.  

Here are 25 of some of my favorite moments/experiences that I had in London!

1.  Taking the train.  Trains have really become one of my favorite things ever.  They are so peaceful and relaxing, especially compared to the the noisy tube.

2.  In Paris,  all of these french men wanted to take a picture with all of us "pretty american girls."  haha They were so funny!

3.  That time in Scotland when I bought this really awesome sweatshirt and every one else went out and bought the same one.
3.  Long, looong hours on the bus to different places in England-- half miserable, half really fun.

4.  Seeing "Jersey Boys" on my last weekend in London.  It was such a fun show and I think it was one of my favorites.  I am now obsessed with the Four Seasons music haha
5.  Creepy tube stations with nasty rats and nasty men.

5.  Speaking of rats, this show (Mousetrap) was pretty good, but I would not recommend it.  It is the longest running show (over 50 years) in London.  It is one of those twisted, mystery plays.

6.  AH! The haunted ghost tour in Edinburgh!  The scariest night in my entire life, but so worth it.

7.  Reading all of the juicy gossip in the London tabloids on the tube every day.

8.  Big Ben at night.
9.  Trafalgar Square at night after we would go see plays or musicals.  

10.  The London Bridge

11.  Mary Arden's Farm (Shakespear's mom's house) ... boooo!  This place was lame.
12.  Parliament day when we had to take our picture in the security office before we could enter the gates, I had no idea they were taking a picture of me until after the fact... Hence, why I am making the dumbest face ever.  This is me reenacting it.

     
13.  The paris tour bus with my home girl Abby.  I'm pretty sure I fell asleep on half the tour because we were so exhausted from traveling haha

14.  The telephone booths.

15.  Me and Becky when we went to Parliament.  I love this girl so much!
16.  On top of the eiffel tower, we met another study abroad group of architects from Texas.  A few of the girls got eiffel tower kisses with some of the boys.... ew! I know right?  But this was really one of my favorite nights!
17.  Amazing crepes.  Mine was a turkey, cranberry crepe I think.
18.  I thought I would throw in this picture for Emily hahaha
18.  The amazing "munch and mingle" that our ward threw for us after church.  They had some of the strangest combination of foods.  The afternoon was filled with food, good company, lots of hugs and tears, and some performances from my young men and primary.  Some of the primary kids sang for me and Jared danced for me but never got around to doing his rap for me.

19.  Our Relief Soceity President.  She turned 50 years old that day.  This was one of those days that I will never forget.  The spirit was very strong and it was just so fun, because I felt that finally the youth and the kids were opening up to me.  At the end of relief society, they chose to sing "God be with you till we meet again"…  Before we even started singing, tears were flowing down my face.  I was just picturing that I may never see any of these people again, but I know that we will embrace each other in the next life.  I feel as though I was friends with some of them in the preexistence.   Its hard to explain but I felt like I knew them before.  I didn’t feel like a stranger at all.    

20.  The young men that I got to teach in Sunday School.  In sacrament meeting that day, they confirmed a new member of the ward named Colby. My favorite part was after the bishop confirmed him he said, in his African/English accent, “Welcome home brother.”

21.  The beautiful Young women.  The president of the Young Women is going to Ghana in September for a memorial for her father, mother, and brother.  She has done their sealing’s and is so excited to tell this to everyone.  Her father was a Methodist minister.

22.  Double decker buses.

23.  Living with my homie, Abby.

24.  London Eye, Which is basically this huge ferris wheel where you can fit about a dozen people in each tube.  It was so amazing at the very top when you can see all of London and I actually knew what every thing was!  The view was beautiful!

25.  Portobello Road.  I would wake up really early on saturdays to get a head start because it would get so crowded by 10 or 11 am.  I just loved walking up and down this road.  It reminds me a lot of the French quarter.  I ran into some Louisianans-- I could tell by their LSU outfits.  They were so nice and we had an instant connection with one another.  We were talking about how much we love London and the husband said that Portobello road was his favorite.  It reminds us a lot of New Orleans.  

Jude Law in Hamlet!

On Saturday, we got up at 6 in the morning to go stand in line at Leister Square to get Hamlet tickets.  We waited until 10 am-- it wasn’t too bad.  It was totally worth standing in line because the play was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.  Seriously, Jude Law was an amazing actor and was very captivating.  I can’t even begin to describe how well he played crazy Hamlet.

Here we are before the play...

 We also got box seat tickets and were the best seats in the whole room.  We were so close to the stage that we could have reached out and touch his head if we really wanted to.  I don’t know how we got them for only 25 pounds.  Me and Anna felt like VIP when one of the ushers led us to our box like we were somebody important haha.  It was so much fun. 

Here is Katie and Jordan.  We had three bow seats with 2 girls in each.

 Hamlet for some reason has always been my favorite Shakespeare play.  I guess I had a good teacher in high school who taught it.  I normally do not not plays that much but this was like watching a movie!  Not only was Jude Law eye candy, but he was an incredible actor and so was the rest of the cast.  

After the show we headed outside and waited at the stage door to get Jude Law’s autograph.  I felt like an N'sync fan again, but I didn’t care.  I ended up getting his autograph and got some pics with him.  

I was so happy and I couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing everything was.  I love life!!!  Why am I having all of these cool experiences??? I‘m a little confused, that’s all.

Week 4 in England

Before you continue reading please note the following:

A) I am still alive 

B) I was smart and cautious even though it may not sound it, and

C) It was the funnest night that I had in London by far!

So week 4 in London was kind of lame.  This includes: major toothe aches, dentist appointments, and people were starting to really get on my nerves.  It all started when I came back from Paris and I guess Paris really spoiled me.  Last night was so perfect and definitely revived my spirits.  So there is this girl, Megan, who is getting married four days after London and we threw her a bachelorette party.  16 of us decided to dress up and go out for dinner at Hard Rock café.  

On our way to the tube stop was hilarious because we stood out a lot because all of the girls are so beautiful and and all you hear are heals walking down the street.  There was this guy who passed by who was on the phone and said, “Do you hear that?  I think I just walked through heaven.”  It was so funny!  Next we show up at hard rock café which is the funnest restaurant and there is another bachelorette party waiting outside and they were so hilarious.  Apparently bachelorettes are called hens here in Britain.  They were so drunk and so funny and so nice and we were all having the best time laughing.  They found out that Meagn was 19 and they flipped out, since most of them were probably in their 30s.  I’ll have to try to upload a video sometime.  They were wearing all neon and crazy clothes and they even gave Megan one of their gag gifts.  Dinner was so great and so crowded and we walked in to our table with the “hen” group and people were taking pictures of us left and right. Oh man, were they a hoot! 

The "Hen" party

Anyway dinner was great and afterwards we were just walking down the street trying to figure out what we wanted to do and then out of no where this group of Hollister models come up to us (including one that looked like Edward cullen with his buffant hair)  and said that we looked very lovely and dressed up and invited us to get int his club for free.  I don’t know why we just all willingly followed them but we did and I don’t know what we were thinking but it was so worth it!  I literally felt like I was in a movie that night.  This club was called Vendome and there was the longest line wrapped around the corner and the models took us right in and the bouncers let us in. 

We felt like celebrities and I couldn't help but to think that I was in a movie or something, but of course me and my friends kept going over some worst case scenarios and what we would do in certain situations because hello this kind of stuff never happens!  So we walk in and it is this legit club and I guess it cost lots of money normally to get in and we got In for free. And our friends got us this vip lounge with some water and some cranberry juice since they knew we didn’t drink. 

Just when you think this couldn’t get any more like a movie, it does.  The second that I walk in I completely fall down a step and totally biffed it in da club hahahaha it was so dark and I'm pretty sure no one saw it cause it was kinda early and not many people were there.  It hurt pretty bad, but I hopped right back up and didn't even care.  Anyways, that night was so much fun and I noticed that people don’t dance so bad here and I was so shocked. We were all having so much fun.  There was a spinning dj thing, a bloody nosed girl in the bathroom, and a fight that I witnessed outside of the club afterwards and it all added to the excitement of the night and the unrealness of what I just experienced.  Yeah this all may sound so ridiculous and immature but it was really one of the funnest nights in my life and I cant believe how great every thing turned out.  Who am I??? You probably think that I am like that that stupid girl in the movie "Taken," but don't worry because I am still alive!

Scotland Week 5

Day 1 Monday

On the first day we stop at a couple of places in England including Fountains Abbey.  

We stayed at a Harry Potter Castle in Durham.  It was great but it was a little anti climatic when we found out we were sleeping in the haunted part of the castle, the rooms were a little creepy, and we had to walk up a billion sairs to get up there.  When my room mate was is the shower I was all alone in my “dungeon” and quickly called my mom and told her how freaked out I was.  She told me that Emily was pregnant and then I became happy : )  

The next morning we had a harry potter breakfast and I went to the morning services at the cathedral next door.

Second Day in Scotland

We arrive in Abbotsford, Scotland and visited Sir Walter Scott’s House.  Scotland is beautiful, green, hilly, and very rainy.  The rain is soft.  Scott’s house was very fascinating.  He contributed so much to the history of Scotland.  I thought it was funny how proud our tour guide was to be Scottish.  

We arrived at this pretty nice hostel that night in Edinburg and went out for dinner at the Filling Station and then went to Chocolate Soup for some hot chocolate.  We then went on a haunted 18+ tour that takes you down to these vaults.  This was one of the the scariest nights of my life.  The last 10 minutes were unbearable.  I’m glad I did it thought.  For the most part is was fun and interesting to do it in “the most haunted cities in the world.”  The tour told us about the witch trials that took place in the citiy and some of the torure methods they used.  In the vaults, they showed us a haunted wiken church and some other very scary vaults.  I had the eeriest feelings.  Some of the girls felt fingers across the back of the neck.  

 Day 3 Edinburgh

I love Scotland! It is gorgeous, raw, and historic.  The people I think are friendlier than Londoners and more down to earth and funny.  We actually just got back from a pub with live music.  This singer guy was so awesome and entertaining.  He asked us where we were from on his microphone.  Abby yelled Utah.  He asked if we like the Osmonds.  We said no.  Every one started laughing.  He ended up playing a Scottish song for us and all of the scots were singing along.  

Earlier today we went to the national gallery, Edinburgh castle, the history museum, the elephant cake (where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter on napkins), did some shopping, went to an organ recital at St. Giles Cathedral for the best organist in the world (still boring), ate dinner at this Mexican restaurant, went to chocolate soup again for a cupcake, and went to a pub for some fun.  

 

There was a funeral going on for a firefighter who lost his life.  The streets were very quiet and lined with people.  It was so interesting and touching.

And I thought Paris had a lot of make outers in public, but I guess Edinburgh is as well.

 
Chocolate Soup... so divine!

I bought my first souvenir since I’ve been on study abroad.  I got a Scotland sweater that I fell in love with.  About 7 other girls went out and bought the same exact sweatshirt.  I thought that was funny.  All in all I absolutely love Scotland! It is amazing and I don’t want to leave yet!  The hostel smells disgusting...

Here is the bus that we practically spent half of our time during the whole week.  Let's just say it gets pretty interesting on that bus...

 Day 4 Thursday

Today we left Scotland. On the way back to England, the drive was breathtaking. We stopped at the Wordsworth Museum in which I was not required to go because I am not in the English class (hallelujah).  Instead, me and Becky explored the town called Grasmere Village in the Lake District.  it was such a charming little town.  We good some original ginger bread, English ice cream, tomato soup, Cornish pie, and some truffles.  I have been eating so much.  

We then headed to our hostel in Windermere in the lake district.  We took a boat out to Bowness and looked in cute shops and I bought a canvas with paints (yay!).   We took the boat back to our hostel which is right on the shore of the beautiful lake.  Very picturesque.  For some reason the scenery here reminded me o f Jurassic Park.  It was that gorgeous.  We had a tasteless dinner at the hostel.  We then played scum with a bunch of students in the lobby of the hostel including professor Hawkins and his kids. It was fun.  Me and Nathan (his son) had a “Oh no you din’t fight” and his dad told him to shut up. Haha I felt like an awkward turtle.   

Day 5 Friday

We went to the Preston Temple and church history sites that day.  Joseph Fielding came to England and there were about 1000 converts in the first couple of years, which is a lot.  10 or so years later  there were about 20,000 members.  Today we owe a lot to our membership to our English ancestors who joined the church in those days.  That really hit me hard and touched me with the spirit  Something else that impacted me was when we went to the house that Heber C. Kimball live and had a vision of hundreds of demon like people coming towards him.  It was such an intense vision that he fainted.  When Joseph Smith heard of his vision he actually got excited because  he knew satan was trying so hard from stopping the church from developing in England.  He knew how much would come about from having so many converts in England.  This was a good reminder to me to know how true the church is.  The Kimball house has actually been up for sale for the past 13 years and there was an article on the window and people now think that it I haunted.  

 Peter the tour guide then took us in the park where he showed us a plant that the early aints planted to symbolize/represent all of the baptisms.  We then went down by the river  where they would get baptized.   The temple is about 10 mile south of preston.  It is called the preston temple because President HInkley had inspiration.  After that we stopped at a really boring cotton mill for 2.5 hours.  We only had 30 minutes at the temple.  I was so confused.

 

The Preston, England Temple

The River where they would baptized the members.

Heber C. Kimball's House where  he had the vision.

Peter the tour guide telling us about the early missionaries in England and also President Hinckley's experiences when he served a mission here.