ˈɛɪjaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥ - you suhprice I aspeak you langagee?

So, I'm supposed to be spending my first night in Rome tonight. Instead, I'm still in the London Center in...you guessed it...London. You've heard about it, Eyjafjallajökull...the Icelandic (Icelandish?) volcano spewing ash all over the place, keeping planes on the ground. Mother Earth is alive and well, my friends. We all knew as earthquake after earthquake hit other parts of the world, it was only a matter of time before something happened over here. This just happened at a really inconvenient time. Everyone else on the program not traveling after the program was supposed to be flying home to the U.S. today.
Well, what can you do?
Oh wait, I'm still in London, one of the most exciting cities on the planet.

ok, I'm cool with that. At least for now.

So yeah, we're still having a good time, enjoying the absolutely beautiful spring weather. No signs of ash here.

On Thursday, I only had two finals. I took one in the morning, and then went out with Michelle. We went to Borough Market (just can't get enough) and then took a walk down to Tower Bridge, crossed it, and walked back along the Thames. We came upon a WWI and WWII memorial for the Navy. It had names of all of the UK men and women lost at sea during both wars.

We came home, took our last final, and then had a little show before dinner. Professor Macfarlane sang his own rendition of "The Wizard and I" from Wicked...one of those things that you really can't appreciate unless you saw it yourself. It certainly helped to clear the cloud of stress that had been around for the past few days with finals. We then had a pizza party dinner with Ben's cookies. Yum.


Front stoop picture

Seeing as we were still planning on this being one of our last days here, a bunch of us went to Les Miserables. My second time seeing it in London. The lady sitting next to me sobbed throughout the entire show. Most of the cast was the same as the first time, with a few changes. The new Jean Valjean was absolutely incredible, I couldn't believe how good he was. It's still one of my favorite shows.

Yesterday we took it pretty easy. Another trip to Borough for lunch, a nice afternoon nap, and a walk through Hyde Park summed up most of the day. Then a bunch of us decided to go see "Dear John", another movie that's been out in the U.S. for a while but just recently came out here. I really, really did not like that movie. The last movie I did not enjoy as much as that one was probable "The Family Stone"...remember that one? You don't? Well, it was bad.

Today my cold that I've been denying I have finally took it's toll on my body, and I couldn't really get out of bed until noon. Luckily, Michelle came back a couple hours later to check on me, and we went out for most of the afternoon. The big event in London today was the Tulip Festival at Trafalgar Square. Basically it's just a big celebration of Holland and beer and everyone wears Orange. We walked all the way there, and then had fun people watching and listening to music.


Where's Waldo? ope...there he is.



Oh, and Abby. I finally went to The Spaghetti House tonight, upon your recommendation. It was very good. A nice substitute for the Italian dinner I would have had in Rome tonight.

3 down, 2 to go.

*Disclaimer: I have a lot of random, and perhaps unnecessary detail in this blog. Forgive me, my brain is fried. Fried, and dipped in tartar sauce.

I have successfully taken three of my five finals today. Rarely, in fact, I want to say NEVER, have I had actual written finals, like essay stuff. All of the ones today were like that. I think the closest in the past has been the written portion on my calculus final, but even then, it was just numbers and stuff. Essay finals are hard. Props to majors who actually have to do that regularly. All I have left is religion and culture finals. Piece. of. cake.

sponge cake.

Alright, as promised...events of the weekend.

Saturday was wonderful, as expected. It was one of those days where I just did everything I felt so inclined to do, without any stress or pressure.
So I left my little travel alarm clock on the coach accidentally after the North Trip a couple of weeks ago, and have been relying on Michelle to whack me in the mornings to wake me up ever since. I had a pep talk with her the other night, telling her that she was getting too nice, and that her "waking up skills" were waning in effectiveness. Anyway, she stayed up late studying the night before, and so since she slept in, I ended up sleeping in. I thought it was a good excuse.
After a lazy-ish morning, we got ready and headed out to Covent Garden, for the ballet, "Cinderella" at the Royal Opera House by the Royal Ballet. We got crepes at Creme de la Crepe right before, and headed in to the ballet. I'm pretty sure the only ballet I've ever seen has been The Nutcracker in Portland a couple of times. This performance was stunning, there really aren't words to describe.

Michelle and I then headed back to the center, changed out of our heels, and then went and got kebabs and took them to the park and had a little mini picnic and people watched for a while. We took a walk over to Portabello Road, for probably the last time, to get some souvenirs for family and friends (get excited) and just enjoyed the street. It was pretty late in the afternoon, so the street was mostly cleared of all of the stands and the thousands of people that crowd it during the morning.


I always love walking by this store, but never realized that it's actually a clothing store, but all of the walls are covered floor to ceiling with these old sewing machines. It's sooooo cooooool


Portabello Road and Market - gonna miss it.

So we got back and figured that the day was pretty much done. You know, we didn't have any more big plans, and were probably just going to start studying for finals and such. But Brittany came in and said a few girls were going to Nando's (of course) and then to a movie at Whitefield Mall. Like always, it didn't take long to convince me that fun is more important that studies.
Since I had just eaten, I just got bottomless frozen yogurt at Nando's, but ended up eating 4+ cup fulls. mmmm. I then watched Karalyn, Brittany, Kira, and Michelle get milkshakes at Sblended. And then we slid around on the traction-less mall floor for a while since it was essentially closed down for the night.
Movie of choice: WHIP IT!
I guess this movie has been out for a while in the States, but I had never heard of it, and had no clue what it was about. Well, was I in for a surprise. My first impression was "what the heck am I watching?" and then after about ten more minutes I realized that it was the best movie ever. Laughed the whole time. It's kind of like a girl power movie, but so so so much better. I mean, it's about roller derby, so it's got to be entertaining. As we left the theater, we pretended to "whip it" as we slid out of the mall on the slippery floor. There's something about malls...it's like it doesn't count as a public space - you can act ridiculous and it's ok.

On the tube ride home there were a few creepers, but I gave them the death glare and we made it home safe.

Sunday, sunday, sunday sunday sunday sunday. LAST sunday.


me in front of the Peckham Chapel - check out the lady in the background, though. seriously. I laughed for two minutes.

Tori and I were not so terribly sad about this being our last Sunday in this ward, but as we left I think we both were a little sad. It was a really good last Sunday. During sacrament meeting, Bro. Bradley (precious, shy, English man, who is a counselor in the bishopric) stood up and thanked the BYU students for our service in the ward, and then promptly announced that I would be getting up to bear my testimony, followed by Tori. I should have seen it coming. Oh well, it was fine, and hopefully I said something meaningful.
Primary was great, the kids were pretty well-behaved, and I swear they sang their best for me since it was my last time playing the keyboard for them. I didn't end up getting any pictures with them, but I'll definitely remember Edwyn, Ko Fi, Abdul, Ko Jo, Angel, Victoria, Sabrina, Andre, and all the others. Love them all and their craziness.
I honestly didn't really get to know any of the adults, since I was always at the piano during sacrament meeting, but Tori and I had a favorite missionary, Elder Ellsworth, who always said hello to us and was serving in the ward the whole time we were there. We told him that we thought he was a really great missionary as we left and said bye, and he did an awkward laugh and looked slightly embarrassed. Oooooohhhh missionaries. They can be so awkward.

That night we had a testimony meeting with the whole group for our fireside, which was awesome. It just reminded me how far we've all come together as a group and how great everyone is. Everything said was really genuine and I loved it all. We all spent most of the night acting goofy, still postponing our studies for finals.

I'm pretty sure the last few days have been devoted to finals studying...
oh, on Monday I went on a run with CJ and then later attempted to study in the park with Kira, Brittany, and Mary Kate. That didn't last long.
Tuesday Michelle, Kira, Brittany, and I had a lunch trip to Nando's where we had a "no finals talk" rule. We mostly ended up just talking about how weird it is that we're leaving London already.
Other than that, I've been in the center for the past two days, leaving once or twice for trips to Food and Wine, a little convenience store around the corner with plenty of Diet Coke and chocolate.

I've got two more days in London...who knows how much stuff I'll cram into those days.

*Good news. Packed up pretty much all of my stuff, and it looks like I'll be able to fit it all comfortably in my suitcase. My backpack weighs about 23491834571098 lbs, though.

Study Break

Today I finally realized that I should maybe start studying for all of my finals on Wednesday. Needless to say, my head hurts, and my eyes are tired from staring at my computer all day long. BUT. They aren't too tired to aid me in recounting the wonderful days from last week.

Wednesday:
Instead of going on a day trip, we got to go see the Houses of Parliament. Parliament...cool. They like make the laws and stuff, right? And liiiike....Sherlock Holmes jumps out of the Parliament building into that big river near the end of the movie, right? Ok, yeah. cool.
No, actually I really loved touring Parliament. They gave us the most wonderful little booklet/pamphlets as we waited to enter the building, and I am not joking when I say that I was in the group with the best tour guide ever. He takes first place. Gold star, blue ribbon, MVTG (most valuable tour guide). Let me give you an example. So he's going off talking about the rooms and telling us all sorts of history and information, and then he says, "oh, and that's a bust of Queen Elizabeth...that reminds me, I need to buy stamps..." Funny, right?
Now whenever I'm sitting in front of the TV watching Parliament, I can say "I've BEEN THERE!" We also watched the speaker enter the house of commons. It was pretty anticlimactic, but kind of fun to watch.
After Parliament, we went into the Cabinet War rooms and the Winston Churchill museum. It was fun to wander around the war rooms, and the Churchill museum had some pretty high-tech displays. Not to mention that we had audio guides too. Score.
It was kind of a rainy day, so we went back to the center right after the museum. I can't remember what I did that afternoon. Welp, I'm sure it was good.
After dinner that night, Brittany, Kira, and Mary convinced me that I should go see Wicked again with them. I didn't need much convincing, since I hadn't seen it for a few months, and I really really liked it. Once we got there, I knew that it was a good choice. The cast was completely new, and I had a different view of the stage, but still awesome tickets. Good stuff.

Thursday was my last day of classes! Wahoo. I had all five of them, and then quickly got ready and headed out for a walk to the National Gallery. It was so sunny and warm out, and I loved people watching as I walked through Hyde Park, around Buckingham Palace, through bits of St. James park, and then through the crowds at Trafalgar Square. I had never seen this area so busy before. The sun certainly brings people out of their homes. I saw men in suits with bright red socks sitting on park benches, people taking dips in the Serpentine Pond in their knickers, couples making out in the grass, etc etc etc. Oh springtime. I also got stopped for directions. That always makes me feel good.


St. James Park

I took a couple of swings past some paintings for Classics, and then took another swing past a few of my favorite paintings before jetting back on the tube for dinner. It was an excellent afternoon on my own.


I had never seen Trafalgar Square so busy. Very fun to people watch a bit.

I'm pretty sure Thursday night was fun too...but cramming for finals has pushed those memories out of my ears. How depressing.

Friday was really fun. The whole group took a boat cruise from Westminster Pier down to Greenwich. The sun was out, and it was great just to hang out with everyone and take a look at the city from the river.

We watched this video about 3 times as we were getting ready for the morning. "THIS BOAT IS REAAAALLLLL!!"



London Eye


Tower Bridge


Mary Kate, Karalyn, Kira, Brittany

Once we hopped off in Greenwich, pretty much everyone walked straight up to the Royal Observatory. For those of you who don't know, Greenwich is where time started. Yep. That's what they told us. It's also where you can straddle the Prime Meridian. That was essentially the biggest highlight from the museum.


I skyped for my first time ever with Michelle and talked to Amber later that night. She said, "...you straddled WHAT?!?"


Look ma, I'm in two hemispheres at once!




Greenwich.

We left Greenwich soon after the Observatory, with a little bit of walking around the town, and we even popped into the Greenwich market and had a look around. The food looked really good, but we were all holding out for Borough Market.

Borough is a great place...in case I haven't stressed that enough. This time I let Brittany work her magic with the baklava men and she got me the most delicious "diamond" baklava. Thanks Brittany, you're a pal.


Borough...lots of people = hard to get good pictures.

After we got back, I decided that I wanted to go for another walk. So I did. This time I stayed in Hyde Park, and I took my ipod. I spent about an hour and a half and managed to get over to the east side of the park, where I haven't spent a ton of time. It is so beautiful here.





Later that night, I went with a few girls to Harrods. It was a cool place to see, but basically the coolest thing for me was seeing the decoration of the actual walls and ceilings. Everything else was too expensive to even touch. We didn't stay very long.
Like I said, that night Michelle and I got on her computer and skyped with Amber back in Provo. Fun fun fun.

Well...I think that was a long enough study break. So long, in fact, that I'm going to sleep now. I'll leave Saturday-Mondays events for tomorrow. Toodles.

Easter time.

Hello.

So Easter was a week ago, which I am finding hard to believe. But it was a very good Easter, because it was General Conference weekend too (which I love). We were able to watch most of the sessions here at the center. On Sunday we had a big brunch and everyone dressed up in their Easter clothes, and then had a short mid-day devotional with music and speakers.
In between sessions on Sunday night, a bunch of us were in the servery and somehow got to telling story after story of gory accidents that have happened to us, our friends, cousins, or other relatives. Most stories were less than a minute long, and this went on for at least twenty or so minutes. Despite the grossness, it was a really entertaining conversation. I only had one or two stories to add. I guess that's a good thing.

This is my favorite song that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings, and I was very happy to hear it. It gave me goosebumps. "This is the Christ" (you have to go to the Sunday morning session and scroll over a bit to hear it)

Monday was a full day of classes, and then I went on a run with Christina before dinner. I got shin splints way bad, so the actual running was a little bit painful, but the run was gorgeous, it was a loop I had never done before.
After dinner, Michelle and I changed quickly and jetted over to Trafalgar Square to get tickets to Handel's Messiah at St. Martins in the field church. We got the cheap seats up on the sides of the church, so we couldn't actually SEE any of the performance, but we certainly could hear it. We had fun watching the people around us bob their heads around to the music. Easter here is a pretty big deal, since everyone is very open about religion, and so it had been fun to see the build-up for Easter, and then celebrate Easter Monday with hearing the full Messiah.



Afterward we went down to Trafalgar Square and took a few pictures at night before heading back.



Tuesday was a very special day, because we went to the London temple to do baptisms for the dead. It was also the 180th birthday of the organization of the church, so that was cool. The temple was beautiful, and the grounds were gorgeous. It also had a visitor center, one of only three outside of the United States, so we went in there for a bit and talked with the couple missionaries.


Roommates: Anna, Leslie, Me, Michelle, Karalyn, Brittany, Kira, Arrin, Laura



...and that sums up a pretty happy, spiritual few days.

Goodness. Since my last post I have done more things than...well...more things than I can count, OK?

Here are some "off the beaten track" highlights for me. I'm leaving a lot of stuff out, though.

Last Saturday...so we're talking March 27th, Michelle, Brittany, Kira and I went on the London Eye and did a bunch of other things that day, including going to a chocolate fair, climbing The Monument, crossing Abbey Road, and eating at Tortilla. BUT. With our London Eye tickets came FREE ADMISSION to the (DUN DUN DUN!!) FOUUURRRRRR-D EXPERIENCE! Honestly, I think that they just really want people to come to the 4-D Experience, so they make a special effort to tell you that it's free. Well, we decided that we had to do it.

Best decision of my life, because it was the best four minutes of my life.
Get this: awesome 4-D glasses/goggles, really loud thematic music, animated seagull, cute girl and her dad, real live bubbles, sneezing dragon with water coming out its nose, and screaming audience members.

I just might have to go back and experience it again.


I was so close to stealing those.


This was pretty cool

That afternoon, I sat down in the dining room for hours and hours, working on homework, and helping Michelle plan her life. It was so fun. I love planning schedules, and now that I'm pretty much completely done with all of my general education requirements and everything, planning my schedule just isn't as fun anymore.

Another favorite moment from the last week was last Sunday. After church, Tori and I walked down Bayswater Road where, on Sundays, vendors come and set up their art against the fence of Hyde Park. We walked down and looked at all of the paintings and everything, and then turned into the park and walked back. It was beautiful out, and the daffodils looked great.

On Monday we all hopped on the coach for the North Trip. Ok, ok. I'm not a big fan of riding the coach. However, there is something really, really nice about sticking in my headphones and staring out the window for hours on end. I remember riding the coach a ton when I went to Spain in 8th grade, and just staring at the acres and acres of olive trees. Well, in England I think I'll remember all of the sheep. And since it's springtime, there were lots and lots of baby sheep. So cute.

On Tuesday night, we were in Durham. It was one of those nights that was pretty quiet, but really awesome. Once we got checked into Durham Castle (yes, I slept in a legitimate castle) most of the group went across the way to Durham Cathedral for evensong. I had never been to evensong before, and it was just a really cool experience to be in a gorgeous cathedral (probably in my top 5 favorites) and to hear the choir and everything. After evensong, we all split up for dinner, but probably 20 people ended up at Nando's. I LOVE Nando's (we went again last night and talked for about 15 minutes about how much we love Nando's). I ate with Laura M, Mary, and Karalyn, and we stayed for about three hours just talking. Oh yeah, and then we walked back to the Castle. No big.

The next day, Wednesday, we went to Hadrian's Wall. Basically, it was freezing cold, really windy, snowy, slippery, etc. etc. etc. I felt genuinely accomplished when I made it up to the wall and back down without falling. My feet were cold and soggy for the rest of the day, though. But for some reason, I really liked it. It was like climbing Mt. Everest (ok, not really at all...but still). I made Michelle let me hold onto her and I accidentally pulled her and almost made her fall. My bad.


on top of the wall.


after I made Michelle slip. oops.

We spent Wednesday night in the Lake District, or Hawkshead. On Thursday morning, we walked up to Hilltop Farm, where Beatrix Potter lived (Peter Rabbit, Jemima Paddle Duck...). I loved the walk up there, as did everyone. It was just plain pretty.



Later that day, we were able to stop at the Preston Temple and walk around the grounds for about an hour.



Our last city stop was Liverpool. We got in on Thursday night, and I went with Mary, Laura M, Michelle, Jake, Brittany, and Kira to get tacos and then we went to see The Bounty Hunter. We got Ben and Jerry's before the movie, and I am proud to say that I have a favorite ice cream flavor: Baked Alaska. Try it sometime.

The next morning we went to the Beatles Museum. It was fabulous. I really can't say more than that. Beatles...Liverpool...sigh.



We left about 10 or so students in Liverpool (they were going to Ireland and Scotland for the weekend) so the coach ride home was pretty quiet.

This morning I went to Portobello Road Market with Karalyn, Brittany, and Kira. I'm going to miss stuff like that.

2 weeks until Rome!