Thursday: Class until 2:30.. UGH. then Shopping at Primark, which is the Forever 21 of England. It was INSANITY. But fun. I got some cute clothes, so that was cool. Otherwise, not much happened. So I'm including Friday, in which many things happened.
Friday: Our group went to the TOWER OF LONDON!!!! It is super old. There were bits of the original Roman wall from like 50 A.D. that are still there. We saw the Crown Jewels which were really cool. For those of you who watch Sherlock, and have seen Season 2, I really don't know how he broke in. You're NOT allowed to take pictures... But whatever. we saw a lot of cool historical objects. We played a game called "Pass the Pound" where you give someone a pound when they feel sad, or say something cool, or anything that you can come up with a good excuse for. But you just pass the same pound around, so no one really keeps it. Yup. I got told by a British man that I was scary. It was pretty funny. And now.. here come the pictures!
Wait, is that me TEBOWING in front of the crown jewels.. Yah. I'm legit hahahahaha
A really big book. All it has is all of the military orders of all the weapons and stuff that they bought.. That's a LOT of weapons.
This is the picture that scared the British man. We're STRAIGHT up scary. Me, Jace and Paul. BAM. So we're getting ready to take this picture, and the girl who's taking it is like you guys need to get a lot closer... Trust me. It was funny.
But really... THIS is the picture that should have scared the crap out of that man. But I feel like I fully captured the spirit of this creepy lion thing. Some knights are just more... manly.... than others.. BAHAHA.
Those cannon balls were INCREDIBLY heavy. What. the heck. Who knew?
Jace is a ladies man.. what can I say...
Us in all the hats of the British military. Epic.
Great group picture... We're cute. I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. Also, notice the new shirt and shoes! :)
So at this point, the day is only HALF over. I know, right? So then we got some pretty delicious pizza for lunch and set off on a walk around London. We walked through the financial district, saw the Gherkin, a church that got bombed, and went to the London Museum which had a lot of really interesting high tech exhibits. It was fun, although by the end of all that my feet were dying. That's what I get for wearing new shoes.. :P After a DELICIOUS dinner of ribs and chips- so happy after some of the OTHER things we've eaten...- I went SALSA dancing with a local spanish/Portugeuse branch. It was SO GREAT and I got to meet some super cool people. SO MUCH FUN.
Didn't realize we hadn't gotten a normal picture with one of our cameras.. so we got this one. SO MUCH FUN. It was a great night.
Wednesday (June 27th)- This was our first trip outside of London and we went to DOVER.. So exciting. We were able to see Dover Castle where Henry II lived. For those who don't know, Henry II was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine (which I may or may not be related to, it's disputed), and father to Richard the Lionheart and Prince John, (of Robin Hood fame).
City of Dover
The Castle!
Inside the castle they had all sorts of cool replications of medieval furniture and stuff. It was a lot of fun.
This was the dining room. They had speakers making noises recreating what it might have sounded like back in the day.
Jace and I being Royal. it's in my blood.
After Dover Castle, we went down into the "Secret War Tunnels". They're not quite so secret anymore, and we got to take a tour of them, although they didn't allow any pictures. BUMMER. They were integral to saving the British army during World War II. The allied forces had been forced onto a small stretch of beach in France called Dunkirk, and over about 4 days, they were able to evacuate about 330,000 allied troops, and if they hadn't, it's hard to say what would have happened in the war. There's a good chance Germany would have won. 30-40,000 French troops were left behind and two weeks later Paris fell to the Germans. But the miracle of Dunkirk meant the British men were alive to fight another day.
We then headed over to the cliffs of Dover. They were pretty, although we really couldn't see them that well since it was foggy. But it was still cool. After the cliffs we headed to Canterbury Cathedral, spot to the infamous murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket by the knights of Henry II. We saw the ACTUAL MURDER SPOT. Of course Canterbury Cathedral is thousands of years old. I found out after we'd been there that my great-great-grandparents Frederick and Alice Silk were married in Canterbury. I'm not sure if they were married in the Cathedral, but it was still cool. We also saw the current Archbishop of Canterbury, and for those of you who know your stuff, you'll know that he's the man who married William and Kate. Yup. IN THE FLESH. Super cool. Now i'm like 2 degrees away from Will and Kate. Boom shakalaka.
Canterbury Cathedral.
That cross on the ceiling is 6 feet long.
The candle shrine to Thomas Beckett since his coffin/memorial was destroyed by Henry VIII when he changed the Catholic Church to the Anglican church.
The Black Prince. A boss fighter, mass killer of French people, and all around scary dude, but super religious. so there you go.
This picture is for Trevor: it's his dream car, so I just had to take a picture.
We all got money for dinner so we went to NANDOS!!!!!!!!!!
This was legitimately SO DELICIOUS. Oh my goodness. It was Portuguese chicken, and right now, I am CRAVING it. It was so good. I got the lemon and herb chicken burger with chips, and will definitely go back again. YUM.
So recap on what I've done in London... I have now been here for ONE WEEK
Saturday: I arrived at Heathrow around 8:10ish and was finished with customs by 9. Then started the CRAZIEST drive of my life. I hired a driver (so fancy) because taking the tube by myself at night in a foreign city for the first time was not something my mom (or I) really wanted to experience. I got to the London Centre around 9:30, unpacked, got oriented and went to bed.
Sunday: Church today! It took us an HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES to get to church. This was due to a train being down, and us having NO clue as to where to go.. It was great. But I'm in the Crystal Palace ward and it is so great. There are a lot of Africans in our ward, and I'm definitely a minority in my ward. But it's great. I don't have a calling yet, but I'm super excited to get one. We had super gross pea soup for dinner.. It was awesomely awesome. That night we went and walked around Hyde Park. It was great.
The beautiful people in our church group. Michael, Janie, me, Christina, and Annelise.
Monday: we started off bright and early with class. It was fun!!! Haha... not. I got fish 'n'chips for lunch.. It was pretty delicious. After lunch we had a lecture and then went on a walk of our neighborhood. After that, a big group of us went to get gelato. SO GOOD. I'm probably going to gain 10 pounds from gelato alone.. :)
Yummy! Although they didn't give us any sauces.. That would have made it truly delicious.
That picture behind us was made completely from stamps.
Creamy Milkchocolate hazelnut, say what??? SO GOOD. It tasted like nutella, except BETTER. YUM YUM.
In the evening we trooped down to St. Pauls to see the London Symphony Orchestra perform Berlioz Requiem. It was truly beautiful, soothing, calming... yah. Almost fell asleep there. It was an hour and a half. Now, I like classical music as much as the next person, maybe even more so than the next person. But Berlioz is too soothing by far to listen to 2 days after flying from the states and expect to stay awake the whole time. :)
Our whole group at St. Pauls, and the Orchestra inside. I can't wait to go back. It's beautiful.
St. Paul's at night, all lit up. Can you believe this was taken on my phone? Yup. Thank goodness for iphones. After the concert we walked across Millennial Bridge. It looks like this:
TUESDAY: We had a free day on tuesday until 4 when we had a lecture, and then off to the Globe for Henry V. So in the morning I did reading (bummer school), and then in the afternoon a group of us went to Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, London Eye, and then on a Boat ride down the Thames. It was SO MUCH FUN. We also had the best waffles ever. SO GOOD. Why we don't have waffles like this in the states is a mystery. So delicious.
National Gallery!!!! Trafalgar Square! A knitted phone booth. So awesome!!
Then in the evening. Henry V. I must say, the actor who played Henry...? SO ATTRACTIVE. Actually, there were many attractive men. It made the aching in my legs more bearable ;) Yah. SO ATTRACTIVE. MMMM...
That was my first FOUR days in London. And I've already done so much, and yet there is still so much to do. Just wait for the second half of the week... It gets better.
So I'm now a world traveler.. I've been to TWO foreign countries. Like a Boss! I flew out of Denver at 5:15 pm mountatin time and landed in Reykjavik at 6:45 Icelandic time. I got through customs/whatnot and took a bus to Reykjavik. I walked up the hill to Hallgrimskr but it was still closed. So I walked along the street to the Harbour, found random statues and just meandered my way around. Then i went back to the church, explored a little and went to the top and took some beautiful panoramic pictures.
view from the bus on the way to Reykjavik.
Krona! Icelandic Money.
a Very neat row of houses
On the plane ride over, there were a bunch of these things.. My favorite was when the last one said, and over half the country believes in fairies.
Hallgrimskr and Leifur Erikkson
View of the Harbor from a cool statues
Look! Harry potter in Icelandic!!!!! BAM.
ceiling of the church. Those are gothic arches.
View of Iceland from the bell tower
My delicious meal of homemade ryebread, some buttery spread, smoked trout and cottage cheese. mmm.. yummy!
Things I learned in Iceland
1. I can't do math WHATSOEVER.
2. I need to convert my money to USD (like with a converter app) BEFORE I withdraw from the atm... Oops.
3. Reykjavik is quite small, but pretty. All of the buildings are old, but not in a well-reserved old, but in a rusting stained, falling apart sort of way.
4. It smells like salt water and smoke fish.
5. I am super awkward talking to foreigners and I'm pretty sure they all laughed at me.
6. People in Reykjavik use old fashioned perambulators (baby carriages) to push their babies in. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture, but it was quite cute.
7. Even if the houses are rusting, the backwards are like fairy gardens. I felt like a super creep taking pictures of people's backyards, so I refrained, but they were quite pretty.
So today was Easter. It is such a beautiful time of year. It warm and sunshiney and lovely outside. The trees are in blossom, with lots of flowers, and most things smell wonderful. I love springtime. Everything is coming back to life, bursting forth new shoots and buds, even my allergies, unfortunately. As of writing this post, I've sneezed approximately 10 times, despite haven taken 2 benadryl at least half an hour ago. Okay, make that 12.
We celebrated Easter by having a dinner with a bunch of people from our ward. It was lovely, despite things not working out quite as planned, just fyi, half and half is NOT a good replacement for heavy whipping cream.
Us and our beautiful food!
We made ham, and I made potato salad for the first time all by myself. It.. was an adventure.
Our beautiful eggs that we dyed. The glitter one is mine :)
But despite all the food, the eggs, the candy, the fun and the friends, that really isn't the most important part about Easter. Easter is a time where we can reflect on the wonderful and amazing gift of the atonement that Jesus Christ made for us. While Christmas is awesome, and you get to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I feel that Easter is even more important, in that we remember that he suffered and died for us, in order that we might be saved, and live with our families, and our Father in Heaven again. Because of the atonement, I have the ability to repent, to become a better person, and to be comforted in times of need. I know that Jesus Christ has suffered and gone through every pain I've ever felt. When I sin, he's felt that pain, and that guilt, and the sorrow. He knows my struggles when I've gone through a hard week at school, when I've failed a test, when my friend says something unkind, or when a boy doesn't like me. Even if no one else knows how I'm feeling, he does, and he can comfort me, and help me to get through it. When life gets so hard, and all I want to do is give up, He is there for me.
One of my favorite quotes on the atonement, (really applying to women) is by Sister Okazaki. I heard it in Relief Society this year, and it quickly became one of my favorites. It's kinda long, but it's great.
"We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism. Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy.
He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion. He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down’s Syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only visitors are children, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He’s been there.
He’s been lower than all that.
He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He’s not embarrassed by us, angry at us , or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.
You know that people who live above a certain latitude experience very long winter nights and can become depressed and even suicidal, because something in our bodies requires whole spectrum light for a certain number of hours a day.
Our spiritual requirement for light is just as desperate and as deep as our physical need for light. Jesus is the light of the world. We know that this world is a dark place sometimes, but we need not walk in darkness. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the people who walk in darkness can have a bright companion. We need him, and He is ready to come to us, if we’ll open the door and let him. "
I love this quote. It is such a beautiful way to describe the atonement, and our need for it. It also reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon, Alma 7:11-12 "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." That scripture is a great source of comfort to me, especially when I'm struggling and having a hard time. I read this, and it gives me strength that my Elder Brother is watching out for me, and he's not going to make me do it alone, if i can't, and if I ask for help.
My uncle passed away two weeks ago, and the second verse, verse 12, is a testament to me, that even though he's not with us on this earth right now, we will see him again, and he's up there watching down on us. I know that through the plan of Salvation, we can be reunited with our loved ones after we die.
We watched a video today in church with one of my favorite songs, "Come thou Fount" to some of my favorite pictures of the Savior, from the book Reflections of Christ. It's a beautiful video, and I encourage watching it.
SO... no big deal, but I'M GOING TO LIVE IN LONDON THIS SUMMER!!!!!That's right. I'm going to live in London on a study abroad from June 23rd to August 11th and I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So even though I should most definitely be doing things like, writing my speech, studying for my anatomy and o-chem midterms this week, or doing laundry... I'm dreaming about London. I wish I was there RIGHT NOW. But alas. I am doing homework and studying my brains out. I've been dreaming of going to England since I don't even know, I knew it existed?
I am so excited for this new chapter in my life. And it keeps me going when I want to throw in the towel and fail all of my classes. Failing isn't really a good idea haha. I can't wait to make new friends, tour HARRY POTTER, go to Edinburgh, PARIS, see amazing things, gain a British accent, oh, and fall in love with an attractive British who wants to marry me and move to the United States. NBD. It's gonna happen.
OH BTW... this is where I'm going to be living.. I'm in heaven a little bit right now.....
I feel like its customary for everyone who has a blog is to write a post at the end of the year/ beginning of the new one about what happened the year before. So I'm kinda jumping on the bandwagon there buy at the same time it's neat to see how far I've come in the last year. This time last year I had just switched my education goals and plan from a history/ social science oriented field to an end goal of pharmacy. This meant science classes for the first time since high school. It was a HARD semester. But I learned a lot. At that point I was still worried that I was making the right choice and was worried about whether I'd even like pharmacy. But I had faith and hope and I persevered. I finished and did fairly well considering.
Then came summer. I got my first real job with a paycheck and taxes and a cool badge that unlocks doors. I started working as a pharmacy research assistant. I was opened up to the world of pharmacy and discovered that I really did enjoy it and found it extremely interesting. It made me excited for the future. In may one of my best friends left on his mission. He had been one of the constants in my life between school and home. It was hard, but with lots of letters we still have fun.
I also met a boy in the singles ward. We started going on dates and having lots of fun together. Summer was great. I lived with my aunt during the week and played all weekend.
Then the week before school started we culminated the summer with four of us road tripping it up to Disneyland it was a crazy fun trip and it was a wonderful end to the summer.
School started and I took some doozys. Organic and inorganic chemistry plus pd bio and five dance classes. I had a blast, which was helped by one of my good friends being in two of my classes. Summer boy and I kept in contact although we decided to not officially date. He came out and visited over conference weekend and the feelings were still there but we didn't really address it.
I had tons of fun with my roommates especially Susan.
Thanksgiving came and I got to go home!!! :) my moms entire family came and it was a glorious couple days full of family, fun, and food. Summer boy and I decided we did want to get back together and decided to try the long distance thing. Everything got more serious kinda quickly and expectations started to rise. I finished out the semester with Christmas around the world - a dance performance and finals which I did pretty well in. I came home and had a wonderful two weeks. Everything was great, summer boy and I became official and christmas was wonderful an happy. :)
Then I came back to school and summer boy skyped to say it was over. I was surprised but nevertheless have decided to learn from these events for "these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good"
Lots of things happened to me. I learned things about what I enjoy doing and learning, and that I don't mind getting through less fun stuff to get to my end goal. Also that disappointment is hard, but it will make me stronger. Additionally, that I will find someone who is perfect for me in every way, tho it may be hard and take a while and I'm sure he wont be perfect. I have faith that there's a guy out there who will love me and who will be absolute wonderful. Not perfect but perhaps better for me.
I'm looking forward to this year with optimism and gladness. I will make 2012 an amazing year. Some things I'm looking forward to this year:
living with one of my really good friends.
Staying at BYU for spring term.
Going to London (hopefully!!!!! My application is in!!!)
Passing all of my classes and doing well in them.
Increasing my spirituality.
Losing weight and becoming stronger. It's gonna happen- I'm in gymnastics haha
So we're getting ready to take this picture, and the girl who's taking it is like you guys need to get a lot closer... Trust me. It was funny.
Some knights are just more... manly.... than others.. BAHAHA.
St. Paul's at night, all lit up. Can you believe this was taken on my phone? Yup. Thank goodness for iphones. After the concert we walked across Millennial Bridge. It looks like this:
Trafalgar Square!
A knitted phone booth. So awesome!!
Yah. SO ATTRACTIVE. 
