i take pic-tures

Law School Update

2012-02-09T15:04:00.001-08:00

As most everyone knows, Bryce is going to law school next fall. (yay!)
It's been over 3 full months since we sent in most of his applications, and we're FINALLY starting to get some definite answers from schools. The schools that he has been accepted to so far are:

Michigan State (East Lansing, Michigan)
Lewis and Clark College (Portland, Oregon)
University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky)

We're trying not to make any definite decisions yet, although it's very difficult. But every school just throws another big wrench in the decision-making process. He's only been rejected by one school (Colorado...yeah we weren't that bummed) and waitlisted at one (Oklahoma...we rejected THEM, ha!). There are 5 more schools we're waiting to hear back from.

Speaking of school, there are only 11 more weeks until graduation! And I'm not going to any sort of graduate school so that means I'm DONE. Like DONE done. Exciting, isn't it?

Jewish to odor sunteen?

2012-01-31T13:47:00.000-08:00

Title reference: http://art-bin.com/art/aroomservice.html

These polar bears were at Sea World when we visited over Christmas. Quite the life, don't you think? Minus the kids who bang on the glass...

Anyway, it's been a while. I think I say that about 57% of the time I blog. Nothing terribly new here, except the fact that we're about a month into a new semester (my LAST semester, mind you) and it's been pretty easy. Favorite classes are probably university orchestra (percussion section bay-bee) and spinning. Notice, my favorite classes are not business law, money banking and economics, or strategy. Go figure.

Let's see, now for some embarrassing moments.

I'm a TA again this semester. Yesterday in class the professor was using the white projector screen for a minute, and when he was finished asked me to turn the lights back up and raise the screen so he could use the chalkboard. Lights, check. Raising the projector screen? Not check. There were about 40 different buttons to choose from, so I stood there for probably 2 seconds (which seemed like 15793 seconds) and picked a button. After trying it once with no effect, I tried it a second and third time because I felt like it, gosh darn it. Then looked helplessly out at the class of 140 students as my face turned red because I was turning into that really book smart girl who has absolutely no common sense whatsoever (I'm sure you've met at LEAST 3 of those in your life). Some more fidgeting next to the screen, and finally I spotted the right buttons waaaaaaay down below all of the other ones. Success. Except then I had to go back to the other button I had originally pushed and bring the chalkboard back down. Smooooooooooth.

And then today I was walking back from campus after 2 sweaty hours of jogging and then spinning, when I realized I forgot to grab my keys on the way out the door this morning. Another stellar moment in my book. You see, Bryce drops me off on campus in the mornings before driving to work, and so I don't actually use my keys until I come back home on my own. So I gave him a call, and apologetically asked him to drive back home to unlock the door for me. It takes him about 20 minutes or so to drive from work to our apartment, so I sat outside in the cold while I waited for him. Sweaty Annie + around freezing temperatures = Cold and grumpy Annie. The post man even walked by while I was waiting and said "that looks like a pretty cold seat!" No, really? Is that why my rear end is going numb? Thanks, Mr. Postman. After a hot shower, sweat pants, and oatmeal, I warmed back up.

I swear my hair is still dark brown, despite these moments suggesting otherwise.

Christmas Time

2011-12-12T18:42:00.000-08:00

Some pictures of our stockings made by my talented mother and our itty bitty 3-ft fake tree. It sure makes it feel a lot more like Christmas!

Usually Unusual Things

2011-12-07T18:52:00.000-08:00

As usual, it had been a while since I have blogged. In the past month we've had quite a few unusual things happen. Some good and fun, and some not so good and fun.

First! On November 19th at 4 a.m. I woke up to Bryce who had woken up to an awful smell. To make a long story relatively short, he looked outside, saw a cop car and smoke billowing out of our building. At the words "Annie it's a fire!" I jumped out of bed, got dressed in about 30 seconds (we're talking jeans, t-shirt, boots, snow jacket...I was gonna be ready for anything) grabbed my backpack with laptop, phone, keys, and wallet inside and we headed outside as our apartment began to fill with smoke. By that point police officers were banging on everyone's doors to get them out of the building. I have never seen so many women in bathrobes. As we watched smoke literally pour and pour out of our apartment building, I kept thinking "WHYYYYY don't we have RENTERS INSURANCE!?!?" Luckily (I say that somewhat sarcastically) it was only a car fire in our parking garage. After about an hour and a half we were let back into our apartments, only to find a layer of soot and ash over everything. Not to mention the whole place smelled of lovely burnt rubber. I went back to sleep for about 4 hours.
We later found out that someone had stolen a pickup truck, used it in an "extensive" robbery, and then parked it in our parking garage (which is directly under about 18 apartments with real PEOPLE living inside!) and then BLEW IT UP. SMART, loser. The truck and the car next to it were engulfed in flames, and both were totaled. Luckily (I say this seriously) the gas tank didn't blow, which probably saved the rest of our cars from complete destruction and the building...and potentially our lives (AND, all of my awesome stuff). I took a picture from our balcony of the towing people dragging the truck out of the garage. Take a look!

Our apartment and car have since been cleaned and no longer smell nasty. Victory!

Number 2! Bryce had a 24th Birthday! Now that doesn't happen very often in a lifetime now does it? We had a quiet celebration going out to dinner with Taylor and Ed and then having cake and ice cream. 24 candles produces a lot of smoke...no more fires please!

And then we went to Oregon for Thanksgiving (not too unusual, since we went last year too) and ate a lot of food and shopped a little bit and put the Christmas tree up and played Risk twice (I won both times) and watched college football and made gingerbread houses and other stuff. Here's the house Bryce and I decorated together. We were very proud of our wreaths and M&M roofs thank you very much.

Last weekend Bryce took me on a date to The Festival of Trees at the expo center. He told me where we were going and I said, "What's at the expo center??" But it was really fun! There were lots of families and LOTS of kids. We bought some fudge and walked around looking at the quilts, trees, and other Christmas decor. I took pictures of things that reminded me of people I know.
First, the Donna Quilts.

Then the "Purplicious" spread (Niece Mckenna)

Then, the Ashley and Greg display (My sister-in-law and her husband...she plays the violin, and they're both kind of short)

Taylor Tree (it the Eiffel Tower and he served his mission in Paris)

And the SNOOPY decor! For Bryce, of course...because he loves snoopy??

A few more unusual things have happened over the past couple of days. Yesterday I stayed up pretty late finishing up a group project on campus until nearly 1 a.m. and then finishing up a 5-page paper. So this morning I wasn't feeling all too jazzy, and I hadn't showered for two days, so I was really looking forward to that. To my extreme disappointment, when I went to turn the water on in the shower, all that came out was a tiny tiny trickle. I panicked, and then remembered that we had received a notice that our water was being turned off for about 6 hours today. Well, poop. So like any stinky and resourceful girl would do, I filled a cereal bowl and water bottle with any water left in our pipes (kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower), and then washed my hair and face, and brushed my teeth with it. Another victory!

To improve a somewhat stressful day, Bryce called me this afternoon and said that he had just found out he got accepted to Michigan State Law School with a half-tuition scholarship!! YES! We celebrated at Costa Vida, naturally.

Pumkin Bars

2011-11-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

Today, when Bryce and I got home from a super long day at work and school we ate leftover chicken and rice, turned on the Virginia Tech vs. Georgia Tech football game, and made pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting.

Have I mentioned that we absolutely love Fall?

Tis the Season

2011-11-08T16:11:00.000-08:00

Ever since I saw a house here in Provo that had Christmas lights already up, I have been thinking that refusing to let Bryce put up our 2 colored strands of lights on our balconies until just before Thanksgiving (even that took generosity) is just simply UNFAIR! On the other hand, we must give Thanksgiving the time and celebration it deserves, musn't we? Yes, we must! Those poor 2 packages of 60-bulb colored LED lights will just have to wait.

Photobooth, Take 2

2011-11-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

Tonight, I went to Bryce's first flag football tournament game. It was very exciting, and very cold. They pulled off a nice victory, 21-12. Then we came home, had celebratory ice cream, and opened up photobooth on my brand-spanking new macbook pro. Did you know that photobooth now has new and improved settings? Check it out.

"Bugged Out"

"Space Alien"

"Chipmunk" (my personal favorite)

Happy first November weekend!

Autumn Festival

2011-11-03T16:35:00.000-07:00

Do you realize how difficult it is to jump back into blogging after not doing it for over two months? I do.
This semester has been a busy one, as have been all of the ones prior to this. One of the most exciting/rebellious things that I've done in the past few weeks (get excited, it's really good) is...buy a season-appropriate-scented candle and actually light the wick in my apartment! There's a flame and everything! Woah, hey!

Well I'm not sure if that's entirely true as the most exciting, but I promise that this candle smells really good.

A Weekend of Firsts

2011-08-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

Don't judge me by the fact that I only did one day of that challenge. I realized that maybe I am just busier than I thought I was.
However, I MUST blog about this past weekend, because it was great.

Friday afternoon kicked off my birthday weekend. Bryce and I started things off right by getting J-Dawgs for dinner, and stopping by the duck pond on campus where we spent part of our FIRST date. We both realized how fun it can be to create dialogue for different animals. Yes, we know we're ridiculous.

On Saturday, I hiked to the summit of Mt. Timpanogos for the FRIST time with Bryce, Taylor, Ed, and Sarah. It was a pretty hefty hike, taking us about 11 hours, but it was totally worth it. Bryce and I wanted to hike it last summer, but marathon training always took priority. Follow the pictures all the way to the top!

That night, Bryce and I grabbed Costa Vida for dinner (mango chicken salad...best thing ever) and then Michelle brought a birthday cake over. Taylor, Ed, Michelle, Bryce, and I celebrated my birthday a few hours early with a nice round of The Great Dalmuti. Taylor and Ed were nice enough to even bring me a very specially wrapped birthday gift:

The contents? Truffles, Dove chocolate, and a 5-lb. bag of gummy worms. I'm set at LEAST until next Halloween.

On my official twenty-FIRST birthday, Bryce and I went to church despite our massive sun burns and sleepy selves (we looked ridiculous, I can promise you). We then headed up to Bern, Idaho with Bryce's grandparents. They own some land and a cabin up there, and we've been meaning to go up all summer. We visited some extended family that lives up there, and then celebrated my birthday with even more birthday cake, candles, and ice cream.

Monday was truly a day of firsts. It started out with Grandpa Kunz teaching me how to drive a tractor for the FIRST time...turns out the tutorial came after the tractor started moving. It was fun driving them around though.

Then, it was time for me to learn how to shoot a gun. Another FIRST for me. I wasn't terribly keen on the idea at first, but it grew on me, I guess. I didn't do so bad with the 22, but the 45-70 was a little to heavy/powerful for me...I needed Bryce's grandpa to hold the barrel for me so I could actually aim (embarrassing...haha)

small gun...

big gun...

We mostly shot at juice cans...but here's some damage Bryce did to this wood.

The bullet went in...

...and out.

By the end of the morning, Bryce's grandma said I had been fully turned into a farm girl. I hope that's not a bad thing.

They also have a grove of sorts where everyone carves their initials into a tree. Bryce and I are special enough to be in the "married" section. We went with the classic heart around the initials. I thought it was cute.

That's a view of the cabin. You can also see some of Bern down between the hills.
On our way back to Provo, we stopped in at Utah State, had some Aggie Ice Cream (another first for me). It sure was tasty :)

Once we got back to Provo, nothing could finish of the weekend better with watching a little bit of Pride and Prejudice (the A&E version, of course).

Happy Birthday to me!

Day 01: Something you're looking forward to this year.

2011-08-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

There are many things I'm looking forward to this year, such as birthdays or Christmas or not working full time, but I think most of all I'm looking forward to this Fall. (unintentional rhyming)
"Fall" is all-inclusive.
First of all, Fall, er...Autumn is my most favorite season. I love the weather, the change of colors on the trees (or mountains, when you're in Utah), and getting to wear scarves and sweaters again.
Second, this is the first semester of my last year as an undergrad student at BYU. I'm actually kind of excited to get back to the studies (don't quote me on this when my first round of midterms comes around). The end is in sight, and that gives me great hope.
Third, I'm excited for the sports. Mainly football, but I'm also excited to play intramural soccer again. Bryce and I have big plans for every Saturday until...well, until the National Championship. Bryce has been practicing his grilling skills, and ESPN is calling our names. Thank you, BYU, for going independent so we no longer have to suffer listening to the commentators on The Mountain.
The first official day of Fall is September 23rd. I might just make it into a little holiday of it's own.

Alright, so I caved.

2011-08-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

So, I mentioned in my last post that I have been wanting to blog more. Not because I want to become "a blogger" (you know what I'm talking about) but just because...well...a few reasons:
Summer finals are over, and I've got two plus weeks until next semester starts. Plus, I need something to distract me so I don't distract Bryce while he's studying for the LSAT. Seriously, I will have the "youngest child" syndrome forever (give me attention NOWWWWW)...although I don't think I'm THAT bad, just sometimes.
Anyway, it'll give me something to do, something to think about, blah blah. I talked with Abby today, and we did some brainstorming (30-day crafts, cookies, pictures...etc.) but nothing is really striking my fancy. I think I need to start with just text. Cookies next month?
I guess I should explain better. I google searched 30-day blog challenges. Most of them are "30 things about ME" which I'm not all too attracted to. I found this list on a random blog, danacreative.blogspot.com:

Day 01: Something you're looking forward to this year.
Day 02: Something you regret not having done last year.
Day 03: Something with which you struggle.
Day 04: Something that is part of your routine that you enjoy.
Day 05: Something in life that gives you balance.
Day 06: Something that excites you and fills you with joy.
Day 07: Vacation Hiatus
Day 08: Vacation Hiatus
Day 09: Vacation Hiatus
Day 10: Something at which you've been a champion or the best.
Day 11: Something about which people seem to compliment you.
Day 12: Something you hope to change about yourself and why.
Day 13: Discuss some of the things on your bucket list.
Day 14: Someone who has made your life worth living.
Day 15: A band/musical artist whose music impacted your life.
Day 16: A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.
Day 17: Someone with whom you shared a friendship/relationship that simply drifted out of your life.
Day 18: Someone you met randomly that's made an impact on your life.
Day 19: Something that shook your belief system to its core (a big disappointment in your life).
Day 20: Discuss your favorite movie and why it's so special to you.
Day 21: Write about your best friend (not significant other) and what makes them special.
Day 22: Describe a dark/turbulent moment in your life.
Day 23: Describe a truly spiritual moment in your life.
Day 24: Discuss a spontaneous moment in your life that that turned out to be fantastic.
Day 25: Discuss something you planned that ended up not being what you expected.
Day 26: How do you handle/deal with both success and failure?
Day 27: What is your vocation (why are you here on earth)?
Day 28: What is your biggest dream in life (what one great thing do you want to accomplish)?
Day 29: What WAS your biggest dream in life (you wanted to do as a kid but no longer can)?
Day 30: Someone in your family that means so much to you.
Day 31: Epilogue: Write a letter to yourself.

While a lot of these seem pretty "deep" (and are mostly about ME) I am hoping that I won't fall into some transcendental state of mind and try to be all super philosophical and serious in these, because a lot of them could be taken that way. We'll see how things go...and I completely reserve the right to abandon ship or modify ship depending on whatever I happen to be feeling over the next 31 days. I guess this person went on a "vaca" for three days, so I guess those are up to me. Ummmm....okay that's all.

See you tomorrow...when I'll talk about something I'm looking forward to. Oh, how fun.

Missing Limb

2011-08-03T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hi.
It's been a while.
Life's good, thanks for asking.
I'm still alive, still healthy, still married, still happy.

And I'm not really sure what to blog about. Here goes nothing, which will probably turn into a ramble about the little things I find amusing in my life with Bryce.

I've been working at Independent Study full time this summer. I have my own cubicle back with all the "old" full-time employees. Not sure how I got that oh-so-prime position, but I sit at a computer all day. At first it was rough working 40 hours a week, but now I'm used to it and I kind of like it. I think my "superiors" like the work I'm doing too because I've been referred to as "a MACHINE!" and even got FULL ADMINISTRATIVE RIGHTS this week (whatever THAT means...) One employee sent me an email that read:

Dear Annie,

Please slow down. You're making us look bad.

Sincerely,

The Rest of Us

What can I say? I've always been one for efficiency, and Bryce always teases me about the speed at which I use my computer.
So...that's work.

I've also been taking a class on The Pearl of Great Price this term. Tonight was actually our last class, since finals are next week. It's been probably in my top 2 if not my most favorite religion class at BYU. I've learned many, many, many things, and always get to come home from class and tell Bryce everything we talked about that day. I took it from Byron Merrill, if anyone is interested. My Fall Semester books, if bought new, are going to cost $946 dollars...classes start in just under 4 weeks.
And, that's school.

And life besides work and school is fabulous. Bryce and I are attempting to make big-boy and big-girl decisions even though we tell each other nearly every day that we're not mature enough for that kind of stuff.
Despite our resistance, Bryce has been full-throttle in an LSAT prep course, and we've been researching law schools all over the country. Since many of the schools that we're looking at could be considered "southern" states, we've been practicing our best southern accents. A few more "now look right that there, honey bunches" and I'll pass for a native.
I finally made Kunz my legal last name.
Yesterday it was really hot outside, and our air conditioning was failing, so we opened our doors (screens closed). After a couple hours we were getting ready for bed and realized that dozens (we're talking 50+) bugs had weaseled their way into our bedroom and were all over our bed, ceiling, etc. I killed 3. Bryce killed the rest. It took about an hour. We didn't get a ton of sleep last night.
(funny thing is that our doors also leak when it rains heavily...thinking we might need them looked at)
Bryce applied to be in the church's New Testament video. They were looking for people who are unusually skinny or missing limbs to be extras in their healing scenes. We figured missing a right hand qualifies. We're hoping he gets in and can get a BYU beard card ;)
Well, that's about it. I'm thinking maybe I'll do one of those blog challenges that makes you blog every day about something small. That way I'll feel like I have a purpose without boring ...uh...whoever...with weird "bugs in my bedroom" stories.

This wedding picture makes me laugh...that's all.

San Diego

2011-06-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Bryce and I went down to San Diego for his sister's wedding. It was a lovely weekend, and a beautiful wedding. We enjoyed spending lots of time with extended family. I also finally got to meet Taylor, Bryce's brother who returned from his LDS Mission in Paris, France just two weeks ago. Having the three Kunz brothers together was quite entertaining. I mean really, just look at these pictures.

Alex, the brother on the left, heads into the Missionary Training Center next week to prepare for his mission to Belgium and the Netherlands. Pretty Exciting.

And...here are a couple other pictures I took on the temple grounds.

2 weeks of happy marriage.

2011-06-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

disclaimer: very long post ahead.
Well, Bryce and I have been married two whole weeks and have managed not to permanently harm or damage one another yet, so I'd say so far it's a success! No, but really, we've had an excellent couple of weeks. It started off with a beautiful (and perfect, in my opinion) wedding day, which I'll blog about later with pictures.
We stayed at the Portland Waterfront Marriott on our wedding night, and had a pretty awesome view of the Willamette River and waterfront...see below.

On Sunday morning I came to the sad realization that I had completely forgotten my shoes at my parent's house. All I had with me were heels and slippers...woops. I put on my heels and Bryce and I headed down to our brunch cruise on the river.

We were both so tired on the cruise, that most people would probably have been shocked that we were brand spankin' newlyweds. I spent most of the time staring out the window, Bryce spent most of the time eating or staring as well. We hardly spoke to each other except to ask questions like "do you want to go to the upper deck?" Our server asked us if we were there for a special occasion, and we told her that we had gotten married the day before. She later asked us, "so...did you guys party hardy last night?" Pretty sure she was convinced that we were hung over. Rather than tell her that in fact, no, there was no alcohol in our systems, we let her think what she wanted. I think it ensured speedy orange juice refills ("just relax, hydrate and eat, guys"). It was great.
I think after the cruise, we both got a little boost of energy. We were going to meet my Dad at the airport to pick up my shoes before we headed down the Gorge to Skamania Lodge, but had a couple hours to spare. We hit up all the awesome shopping near the airport (i.e. chair-comfort testing at IKEA, and movie- and snack- purchasing at Target). Shoe pick-up was successful, and off we headed down highway 84.

This is the view from our room at Skamania Lodge. It's a pretty classy place, with the golf course and everything. Bryce and I felt a little bit, uh...under dressed(?) as we walked in with our Target bags full of granola bars, oreos, and princess fruit snacks.
Monday was QUITE the adventurous day. We discovered the beauty that Stevenson, Washington beholds. Seriously. It's the best town ever. Population of about 1,200 people, and equipped with everything you could possibly need.

I snagged this picture from Wikipedia. It's a picture of main street, where we spent most of our time. Seriously, on the right you have Subway, where we had lunch, then two doors down is a Big River Grill where we had dinner, and an ice cream shop in between the two where we had dessert.

After lunch, we went down to Stevenson Landing, basically a small dock. It was really windy...and then we watched a train go by. Off to Multnomah Falls!

Bridge of the Gods

Horsetail Falls

Trail to the top of Multnomah Falls

At the top

if you look close, you can see little Honda all the way down there in the parking lot.
We ventured back to Skamania, hit up Stevenson for dinner and ice cream, then watched "10 Things I Hate About You". A classic.
Next morning my parents drove out our gifts from the Tualatin reception. We loaded up the Honda, and headed off to Provo. Did I mention that in our first week of marriage, we drove nearly 2500 miles? And did I mention that one of my friends (eckhem, michelle, eckhem) doesn't know how to write a "J" backwards, so we drove those 2500 miles with "Lust Married" written on the back of our car? CLASSY.

We were in Provo just for one day, which consisted of unpacking, laundry, repacking, opening gifts, applying for reverse pell grants. Oh yeah, and the best best best thing ever...homemade cookie monster. YUM. Justification: still our honeymoon, we can do what we want.

Next morning (uh...Thursday now) we got back in the Honda and ventured down to San Diego! Along the way I explained the entire storyline of Les Miserables to Bryce while listening to the soundtrack...and then we talked about baby name themes (you know, like cities, bible names, animals...dolphin, beaver, etc.)
We spent Friday relaxing with Bryce's family and exploring Balboa Park.

Saturday was our open house. We slept in, sat in the sun, got ready for the reception, and enjoyed it. My parents were there, along with some other family, and a few friends from Provo even showed. While getting ready, Bryce grabbed my camera and began taking picture after picture of me taking my hair our of hot rollers. This is the last picture he took, where I give him the frustrated face that says "okay I'll smile for you because I love you, but please stop what you're doing right now".

After sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, we drove back to Provo, concluding the very long series of road tripping around the west coast.
Since Sunday we've been busy setting up our apartment (pictures to come, hopefully). Bryce is back to work, I'm job hunting, and we're enjoying being married to each other very much indeed. Doesn't hurt that it's been beautiful weather.

Praying for warmth.

2011-05-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

I'm getting married in 8 days. Holy smokes.
This means a variety of things, one of which being that the 10-day forecast now includes my wedding day. Thus, I have been checking weather.com daily.
I know it's the middle of May, and spring is in full-swing, but come on people, it's Oregon. Unless it's July or August, rain is always a possibility.
So far, the forecast for the 21st has been in the low- to mid-60s, with a chance of rain (changing from 60% down to 20% today).
The little picture also changed from a cloud with rain to a sun with a cloud in front of it. I'm hopeful.
...if only 62 degrees could magically change to 72 degrees.

But no matter what the weather decides to be, I know be I'll be happy.

Favors and Flowers

2011-05-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

This week my mom and I went to Al's Garden Center. (I have this bias towards anything named after/for "Al" ever since my long addiction to Gilmore Girls...Al's Pancake World, anyone?)
Yes, well, we went to Al's Garden Center and bought 192 little baby impatients and two pretty pots of hydrangeas. Then, over the next two days we planted all of those flowers and covered pretty much the entire front and back yard. Luckily, one of the days was sunny and 70 degrees outside (the other was cloudy, cool, and a little bit drizzly).
The flowers are quite small right now, but they should keep growing and flowering for nearly six months. I look forward to coming here for David's wedding in September and seeing how big they've grown!

I've also been working diligently on the favors for the Tualatin wedding reception. We ordered and the boxes for them way back in December, and finally this last week decided to put sugar-coated almonds in them. Then tie them with a ribbon and attach an itty bitty tag (mounted on cardstock) with itty bitty twiney/wiry material. Cute, right? Sure, but time consuming. I guess now is the time to be grateful for not having too much on my uh...agenda.

Preparing for the big day

2011-05-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

The Saturday after finals ended, Bryce and I made the big drive up to Oregon. He went back to Provo on Wednesday, but I'll be here hanging out until the wedding. While Bryce was here, we got our marriage license, picked our cake flavors and design, Bryce got measured for his tux, and I went through the Portland LDS Temple for the first time, which was a great experience. We did some other fun things as well, such as getting the famous Burgerville shakes, kicking it at Bridgeport Village after catching a movie, and spending Easter Sunday with my parents, David and Jess. Somewhere in the history of the Spackman family, it became quasi-tradition to play the game Guestures to initiate future in-laws. So we played that hilarious game, along with The Great Dalmuti (a classic). Jess and I took last and next-to-last place in The Great Dalmuti, but absolutely dominated at Guestures.

Then I dropped Bryce off at the airport on Wednesday, boo hiss. Since then, I've had a consultation with our florist, my hair stylist, and worked on a few other odds and ends to get prepared for the wedding.

All-in-all though, I'm getting a little bored. Everything is under control and mostly finished for the wedding day, so I'm not stressed about it at all. Along with that, I'm not working anymore, I'm not taking classes, and my friends and fiance are all still in Provo. Suh-weet.

Our cake consultant lady (what do you call that job?) and my hair stylist today both said how relaxed I seemed about the whole thing. My hair stylist even said "you're so nice!" I had to laugh at that...since I'm a bride, does that automatically mean I'm supposed to be panicked and rude to everyone I'm asking to help me with the wedding?? Well apparently, I guess there's something I can work on over the next few weeks.

Poor Bryce is working his tail off in Provo taking all the extra shifts he can at the MTC and moving into our apartment for us. He called me today to say that he went to the apartment to get our keys and looked around a bit. I'll admit that I'm pretty jealous. I hate moving, but I wish I could be there tomorrow when he moves all our stuff in. Soon enough.

A lot of people are also asking me if I'm getting nervous. Again, the answer is "uhhh, no". I think I might get a little jittery come wedding day, but not yet. You see, I LOVE Bryce. We're best friends, and I'm really looking forward to being married to him. I'm more comfortable and happy with him than anyone else, so why would it make me nervous to be with him forever?

The only time I was nervous about the marriage idea was the first time Bryce insinuated that he wanted to marry me. Oh dear, I had a full-out panic attack...but I'm past that now :)

No More Core

2011-04-20T14:11:00.001-07:00

Yes that's right, the Accounting Junior Core is officially OVER. This morning I pressed through my 7 a.m. tax final, came home and slept until noon. So, naturally, I need a celebratory blog post...uh...WAHOO! CELEBRATION!!

Was the Junior Core really as hard as people make it out to be??
uhhhmmmm....yes.

However, I feel as though I was able to manage and balance school with work and social life while still getting sufficient sleep very well. Did I do as well as I would have liked to? Probably not, but enjoying this school year was important to me.

So what have I been up to the past couple of weeks besides getting ready for finals?

Well, a lot of wedding planning and such has occurred. Bryce and I sent our invitations, I picked up my wedding dress, designed a photo guest book with our engagement photos, made my hair appointment, had a bridal shower and bachelorette party, went to Men's Wearhouse to look at tuxes, and a few other things here and there. I feel like everything is starting to fall into place oh-so-nicely. Only one month more from tomorrow!

Now I just need to finish packing and move the rest of my stuff to the super ghetto/sketchy storage unit that Bryce and I rented for the month of "in-between-ness" from now until the wedding. That, and finish grading 50 International Relations final exams. (besides the short-answer and geography portions, that includes 300 mini-essays, wahoo)

BUT THEN!!!
Bryce and I are driving up to Oregon on Saturday, which I am so so so excited for. Should be a fun and relaxing road trip, so long as the Honda makes it alright...wish us luck!

Bryce is famous!

2011-04-06T14:01:00.001-07:00

Okay, so Bryce will probably roll his eyes and be slightly embarrassed at this post, but I just had to tell everyone that my awesome fiancee got written about in the paper! This week he presented to a bunch of CEO's and three mayors about the PR class project that he's been working on with a group for the Lehi Area Chamber of Commerce. He even, EVEN got asked for an interview with the Daily Universe. I've been telling him all day long,
"Bryce, you're famous!"
"Bryce, you're going places with life..."
"Bryce, you're practically a celebrity"
"Bryce, I see big success for your future"
etc. etc. etc.

Part of this is sarcasm, because it was only in the Daily Herald, but I really am proud of him for doing such a good job. He has spent many many hours on this project. Check, check, check it out:

Lehi Area Chamber revamps its brand

Happy Things

2011-04-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

In order to keep my mind off the stress of incoming finals, oral exams, and group cases and presentations, I am going to talk about some of the happy things that have happened over the past couple of weeks.

#1 - New Running Shoes
Near the end of January, I started having a lot of pain on the back of my heel. It got to the point where it was extremely uncomfortable to wear shoes. Turns out I've been hurting my feet with poorly-fitted shoes and got myself a nice little bone spur on the back of my left ankle. I padded the backs of my shoes, and hobbled like a penguin in flats on my way to church for the next few weeks. I couldn't run without feeling pain, and walking to and from class was no longer enjoyable (if it ever was...)
BUT!
Last week, Bryce got his federal tax return (wahoo!) and had a little money to spare, so he gave me some cash and told me to go get some new running shoes. I went to Runner's Corner in Orem, where they have an excellent reputation for fitting feet into the proper shoe. About seven pairs later, I walked out of the store with these beauties:

I've been running several times in them and am happy to say that I feel absolutely no pain. Absolutely wonderful.

#2 - General Conference
General Conference weekend is great, and I especially enjoy it being out at school. This is because we get to have friends come over to watch, stay in our sweats, and make awesome breakfast. Ok, I guess on Saturday Michelle and I went and bought donuts for everyone, but on Sunday Seth, Michelle, and I made hash browns, bacon, and cinnamon rolls (they did most of the work, but I did help...and contributed orange juice). Fabulous. Besides the breakfast, it's awesome to hear the Prophet and other church leaders speak on inspired topics.
Before the Sunday afternoon session, Bryce and I went up to his Grandparents' house in Bountiful for lunch with some other family, and then headed down to Temple Square to attend the session at the conference center. It was an excellent session, as most of them are.

This is Bryce, Me, Bryce's sister Ashley and her fiancee Greg outside of the conference center. It was a bit chilly.

#3 - Girl Scout Cookies
Yesterday I had just gotten home from the gym, when Michelle and I discovered that there were people selling Girl Scout cookies on the corner of our street. No questions asked, we grabbed our wallets and walked out there...scratch that, Michelle was practically running. I bought a box of thin mints and a box of samoas. YUM. Bryce and I ate the samoas later while watching the NCAA Basketball National Championship, which was disappointingly boring.
Notice the happiness that Girl Scout Cookies create:

Also, notice on the fridge...not Jimmer, but the green thing next to Jimmer is an invitation for my bridal shower on Saturday! I'm so excited :)

Friday Afternoons

2011-03-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

Although Rebecca Black may have beat me to the punch, I love and always have loved Fridays. There's something wonderful about the day. I think it's the fact that I can be completely lazy, relax, play, or whatever and not feel guilty.

I think it's also the combination of actually doing something "productive" in the mornings (school and work) and then enjoying the rest of the day that gives it that little something extra, er...yeah.

Anyway.

This morning I walked out of the Tanner Building on my way to work, and discovered that while I had been in class, the clouds had opened up and it had begun to sleet. I called Bryce and pathetically asked him if he could come pick me up from campus after work. I was wearing a hoodie, but an 8 minute walk home still seemed too cold, slushy, and grueling to justify.

Well, he picked me up, and then took us Costa Vida for lunch. Yummmm.
Then we watched one of our favorite movies, Wall-E.
And then we took silly pictures of ourselves on Photobooth, something we've never done, and something I haven't done in a long time. It's fun.

Let me just preface these photos. As most people who read my blog know, Bryce works at the Missionary Training Center, and so more often than not, he's wearing a white shirt and tie. AND as most people who read my blog know, I have 8 AM class every day, and I really like to sleep, so more often than not I'm wearing a hoodie and my hair is in a ponytail. Maybe this is why we've taken so few pictures together this semester...

Yeah, we think we're pretty cool.

This is my favorite, especially the bottom right one. I think he was a little surprised :)

Soccer

2011-03-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

Bryce and I played on a co-ed intramural soccer team together this semester. Tonight we had our second tournament game and lost 4-2. It was a bit of a letdown, since our team was really starting to mesh well, but it was fun just the same.

After our first game, Bryce asked me if we could go play soccer together so he could practice and learn a few things before the next game. I guess I didn't realize that my own fiance' has never actually had any formal coaching on the sport. I am by absolutely no means a soccer expert, but I did play quite a few seasons of the sport while growing up. So I taught him how to properly kick a ball, the basics of ball control, and other things like what to do on offense/defense etc.

My favorite "drill" was when we would both start at one end of the field, and then he'd start sprinting down to the other end as I would kick the soccer ball way out in front of him, and then...he'd keep sprinting...until he got the ball or reached the end of the field. I'd yell at him to hustle back, and then we'd do it again.

After about three times he realized that I was just making him run to tire him out. BUT, I will say that his speed improved after that. Self-props to my coaching abilities.

Anyway, the point is, it's been fun going out and playing soccer a couple times every week. And did I mention that Bryce scored BOTH of our goals tonight?? I was so proud :)

Happy Birthday Michelle!

2011-03-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to one of my very best of friends, Michelle!
Michelle and I have known each other since third grade, and have been pretty good friends for most of the years since then. (there was a time when I thought I was "too cool" to hang out with her, but I've overcome that)

Michelle and I have done a lot together since meeting thirteen years ago, including playing on the same soccer team, attending parties together, making cookies/bread etc. and going to London together last winter. Now that we are roommates, spontaneous dance parties in our kitchen are becoming more regular and commonplace than random occurrences.

For instance, last Friday night turned from a Taco Bell run into a dance party into rolling on the floor laughing into watching "DC Cupcakes" on TLC.
Exhibit A:

Happy 21st Michelle!! I'm so proud to have such a wonderful, beautiful, fun and awesome friend and roommate!

LOVE YOU :D

Bog.

2011-03-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

So I'm in the TA office again (surprise surprise). I think that this room has sort of become what the laundry room was for me in London: my blogging location. Occasionally I'll think of clever topics to blog about, but today I'm feeling slightly "bogged down" so-to-speak. I guess you could say that I'm just feeling tired, particularly lazy, worn out, bored, etc. But bog is a pretty cool word.

bog.

So I looked up "bog" on Wikipedia, the very best possible source of information...
Did you know...
A bog is a wetland, a toilet, a joint swelling on a horse, something mediocre, automotive body filler, a village in Uzbekistan, a monster, airport in Colombia, and also an acronym for the Battle of Gettysburg??

All of a sudden the term "bogged down" seems SO MUCH more appropriate.

However, my favorite acronym:
BOG/Best on Ground - the name and/or award given to the player of the day in Australian Rules Football.
Sweeeeeeeeeet.

I never thought anyone would aspire to be a bog, but I guess it's pretty cool in Australia.

(and to those concerned, Stuart returned to me last week all repaired!)

Stuart's (almost) Demise

2011-02-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

Many people know that I am in love with my Macbook Pro. Alright, not in LOVE, but I use it pretty much all of the time. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit to it, but I check my email probably upwards of 15-20 times a day. I also listen to my extensive music collection on iTunes multiple times per day. Sometimes I'll look back on my old pictures (mostly of London), or I'll get on the internet and read blogs, check Facebook or my bank account, etc. I do most of my homework assignments in excel and submit them online for credit. I even clock in for work online and enter grades on my laptop. Needless to say, my computer is kind of important to me.
Just in case it isn't clear how deep/pathetic my connection is to my computer, it has a name, or rather, he has a name. Stuart. When I got my laptop as a high school graduation gift, I named it as if I had given birth to a child. Let me just clarify that I rarely name inanimate objects in my life...Jose is the name of my Nikon D90. But that's it, I promise.

Anyway.
Stu gave me a little scare a couple of nights ago when the screen went black. This had happened multiple times before, but I was always able to recover the screen. Not this time. Bummer, dude.
Since the nearest Apple Store is in Salt Lake City, I took Stu to the Simply Mac store yesterday. To say the least, they couldn't help me out. So today I took a lovely little drive to the Gateway Mall where I dropped Stuart off for a week-long and free-of-charge vacation to the repair shop. In the meantime, I'm using Bryce's PC (PC...barf) for all of my computing needs, which is extremely generous of him.

Lessons learned from this experience:
#1 - Keep your files backed up on an external hard drive. That is how I have been able to minimize my stress.
#2 - A trip to Gateway Mall requires a stop at Anthropologie. I bought a navy skirt and awesome shirt on sale.
#3 - Being patient and happy = apple geniuses working extra speedily.
#4 - I still think Utah drivers are crazy.

Ninety-Nine Days

2011-02-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

That's right, in 99 days Bryce and I will be getting married :) I'm not big on counting down, but I've discovered that I really can't help it. Blame it on my love for numbers, but when my mind is idle I find myself doing random math calculations in my head to reference how long that really is. It's about 14 weeks, which is the length of a typical semester (excluding finals week). It's also slightly over three months (3 months and 10 days) and also divisible by 3, 9, 11, and 33. Most importantly, it's only a double-digit which means the day is getting closer. Thank you, time, for continuing to press forward.

Michelle informed me that since I have yet to blog about the engagement, I have committed some sort of engagement-blogging sin. So I take this pleasant opportunity to recount the evening of December 16th, 2010.

It was the night before the last day of finals, and I was leaving for home the next day. Bryce had hinted that there had been some "complications" with getting the ring finished on time, and so we were both crossing our fingers that it would be finished before I left for the two week break. (he obviously knew more about it than I did...)

Anyway. Bryce got off of work, and was coming over to give me my SECOND Christmas present. (he had planned on having the ring the night before, and had told me I would be getting my Christmas present then...but the ring wasn't done so he ran to the store and bought me Rook cards and The Great Dalmuti as a substitute. We're big game fans.) He came to my apartment with a brown cardboard box in hand, which he handed over to me with a smile and a "Merry Christmas!" I opened it, and found a bunch of wooden puzzle pieces inside. He had custom ordered a puzzle with a picture of the Portland Temple. Very cute, very sentimental.

The finished puzzle.

As any puzzle-lover would do, I sat down at the table and began to piece it together, not really thinking anything of a proposal. You must understand, by this point I had been anticipating the proposal for probably too long that I stopped looking for hints that it was coming. As we got closer to finishing the puzzle, I realized that a piece was missing. I looked in the box, glanced around on the floor, and Bryce just said "it's okay, we'll find it later." Okay, I thought, might as well put in the pieces we have. Well, we finished the beautiful puzzle, but that piece was still missing. Bryce promptly got on the floor to "look for it" and just as quickly popped up with the piece in hand. On the back of it he had written "will you marry me?" He had had the piece in his pocket the whole time, along with the ring. As soon as I read the puzzle piece, I grabbed his head and began kissing his forehead. Poor guy didn't even get the chance to say what he wanted. No, but I sat back and let him propose properly. He was "conveniently" already on the floor, so he got on one knee, told me all the mushy things that no one probably wants to hear about how he loves me and all that good stuff, and then asked again if I would marry him. Direct quote, I said "okay, YES!"

Ring went on finger, and smiles got as wide as possible.

We celebrated by getting ice cream at the Creamery on Ninth, and then driving around looking at Christmas lights, while making and taking phone calls, texts, etc.

Some homes in Provo go ALL-OUT when it comes to Christmas decorating. This is just a small taste.

Despite the fact that we both had finals to take the next day, I'd say it was a pretty relaxing and enjoyable evening. You know...getting engaged is pretty fun.

We're "seriously" engaged. But seriously, we are.

Joe's Gadgets

2011-02-08T18:39:00.000-08:00

So today has been your typical Tuesday. I had class this morning, watched the BYU devotional, deposited a couple checks at the bank, and then Bryce came over and we did homework and other odds and ends for most of the afternoon. Well, Bryce did homework...I guess I graded papers and then just daydreamed for a couple hours, occasionally asking Bryce random questions about our future. It's alright though, because I have no homework due tomorrow (please don't ask about Thursday and Friday).

Anyway, the point is.

Last night we went and looked at an apartment, and fell in love with it. It has everything we wanted, but isn't so big that we'll fill it up with random stuff and then have to move it all after graduation next year. I'm pretty excited, and have been picturing cooking and doing laundry there for maybe 7% of today. (I think I'm going through what my sister Abby went through shortly after she got married, just prematurely. You know, feeling the extreme need to be all homemaker-y, wear an apron, clean...hmm, maybe not THAT much)
Application and contract-signing are in the works. I'll be relieved once that's all taken care of. And paid for. Sheesh, life is expensive.

Also. My mind has also been slightly occupied with wondering what sort of job I'll get here in Provo after the wedding. I'm not very worried about finding a job during the summer, since Provo clears out and a ton of positions open up. However, I would like to find something that would give me SOME sort of work experience in accounting or business. Bryce often checks the job board at the MTC just in case something good pops up. This week he called me and told me there was a "development financial specialist" position available (perfect, right?). I finally got around to tweaking my resume and typing up a cover letter for it this evening. I spent a good 15 minutes going over my document, saving it as a PDF, then looking at it again, going back to the Word document, making changes, saving it as a PDF, repeat, repeat, repeat. Of COURSE, when I finally emailed it to the guy, I accidentally attached the Word document instead of the PDF. Such is life. We'll see how it goes.

I've come to learn something about myself. When I have little errands or things to do, I can almost never completely focus on schoolwork until I've finished the other things. I promise that I sat at the kitchen table with my tax textbook open to Problem 81, Part A for at least half an hour and got nowhere. And yet, I feel like I've accomplished something good today.
Perhaps now I can reopen that textbook and figure out whether or not Joe can deduct the cost of his "gadgets" from his business income.

The TA Office

2011-02-07T15:01:00.001-08:00

I am currently in the political science TA office, as I am every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. Unlike the first day I was here, when I was the only person in this room and it was beautifully silent, there is now seven other TAs, all of which are either political science or international relations majors. As you may assume, they continually erupt in heated discussions over current events topics and whether or not students’ papers deserve a failing grade.

It is entertaining, really.

While I am not entirely unconcerned with current events, public policies, whether or not democrats are more educated than republicans etc. etc, I choose not to involve myself with their discussions. Part of this comes from my lack of energy on Monday afternoons, and the other part comes from the fact that I like to use this bi-weekly hour to peruse wedding blogs or other wedding-related things. Last week I spent the hour registering online, looking at ratings, reviews, descriptions, prices, and pictures for cutting boards, sheets, and frying pans on Target.com. Today, I took the opportunity to catch up on my favorite wedding blog: www.stylemepretty.com

And now it is 4 o’clock, which means I get to go clock out, head back down the hill to my apartment, and resume my tax homework.

Happy Monday.

Dave and Jess

2010-12-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

My brother has been dating his girlfriend Jess for close to three years now, and in October, they got engaged! I'm so excited and happy for them. Over Thanksgiving I was able to go take some pictures for them up near the Rose Gardens in Portland. Very fun, despite the rain, and mud...looking forward to seeing them again at Christmas!

Home

2010-11-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

I've been counting down the days to Thanksgiving since probably August. Well, not necessarily counting the days, that would be just a little excessive. But it has been something that I have been looking forward to for what seems like forever.
I get to go home on Tuesday. THIS TUESDAY. (I'm sure my parents are smiling at the fact that I'm so excited) Besides the fact that I get to see my fabulous, wonderful, generous parents, there is quite the bundle of other things to look forward to:

- A BIG bed. and sleeping in.
- Food, I mean it's Thanksgiving, and I haven't had my mom's sweet potatoes in quite some time.
- I get to see my favorite brother David and his new fiance, Jess. I've missed them every day since Ragnar this year...I'm also hoping to see Jess's little sis Jackie, who was my partner in crime during Ragnar.
- Bryce is coming with me. He hasn't met any of my family yet except for my wonderful Aunt Karen and her family. It's about time! Plus I get to give him the grand tour of my hometown, of which I am very connected to and proud of.
- Woodburn Outlet mall. Yes, it's making my list. Oregon=no sales tax, need I say more?
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie night/afternoon/whenever date with my best friends in the world, including Seth, who I haven't seen since August of 2008. Sheesh.
- My parent's GIANT HD TV - good for watching football and playing Wii.
- No class. woot.
- Rain. I miss it every single fall and winter. Forget this snow stuff.
- Give n' Gobble 5k. Ran it with my dad last year, running it again this year.
- Thanksgiving also means Christmas is close to around the corner, and I also love seeing my home look like this:

I'll come prepared to help put up and decorate the Christmas tree, mom.

I've been envisioning the descent into Portland for a while (ok this proves that I am absolutely nuts). My FAVORITE thing about flying home is when the plane finally falls beneath the clouds (and there are always clouds) and all you see is trees trees trees forever and ever. Beautiful Oregon, I'm coming home soon!

Tests

2010-11-04T23:32:00.000-07:00

As we round into Friday, I am finishing up my second "exam week" this semester. In the accounting program, they give us the week off from classes (thank goodness) and we have exams in all of our classes (Audit, Systems, and Financial). Conveniently, I guess, my Doctrine and Covenants exams fell on the same weeks as the accounting exams...thus, I have found myself taking 4 exams in 4 days twice this semester (I guess three times once finals come around).
Honestly, it's not that bad. I enjoy not having to worry about homework assignments and being able to have some free time along with my studying.
As of right now, I have completed three of my four exams for this week...BUT.

My most difficult test, intermediate financial accounting is tomorrow (today), and I have to be in the testing center by noon. I've studied for at least a few if not more than several hours today.
percentage of completion, installment sales, cost recovery, earnings management, loan covenants, earnings-based bonus plans, bad debt and warranties, inventory accounting, lower of cost or market, fair value, debt concepts...so. many. concepts. and. problems.

Ready for my fool-proof solution that has yet to fail me in my college career??

stop studying and go to bed.
nighty night.

Update.

2010-10-27T15:01:00.001-07:00

I've been dating my boyfriend Bryce for about 4 months now, but have failed to record any of our dating experiences or stories anywhere as of yet. (Part of this is coming from a very direct lesson learned in my Doctrine and Covenants class yesterday about the importance of keeping a personal history or journal...relevant? sure, why not)

Rather than start from day one and proceed from there, I'll just say that once we met, we realized that we got along pretty well, so we spent some more time with one another, and within probably a week you could say we were "together".

Anywho, the summer was nice because both of us were just working, not taking any classes. We spent a lot of time together, and sometimes Bryce would even bring me Subway and cookies while I was at work. I looooooove cookies.
During the summer, I was training for the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage, and then the Top of Utah Marathon. We started dating a few weeks before I went home for the Relay, and being the great boyfriend that he is, Bryce decided to come running with me on multiple occasions. The first run we went on together was 8 miles. I just had to test him to see if he really liked me as much as it seemed. The first week or so of running with me was a little rough on him, but after some time, Bryce was determined to train for and run the marathon with me. I didn't oppose the idea, but I promise that I did not pressure him at all into that decision. Well, a couple months later (September 18) we finished the marathon, holding hands. It was one of the funnest things I have ever done, seriously. In fact, we were singing "I Believe I Can Fly" at about mile 7.

In August, I went down to San Diego to visit some friends from London. Conveniently, Bryce's family lives in San Diego so we drove down together and I stayed with them for a couple of days. They took us to Sea World one day that I was there. Fun fun fun.

Now we're both busy taking classes at BYU (and Bryce works at the MTC), but we still manage to spend a great deal of time together. Some of our favorite activities include watching football (this is all-inclusive, meaning I go to his intramural games, we go to BYU home games, and we watch college football at home), playing Scrabble, Blokus, or Rook, spending way too much time in Target, Costco, Fye, Macey's, etc. buying movies or 10-pack boxes of Oreo's for $4.97. We do lots of other things, those just seem to be the most common.

Last Friday afternoon we decided to take a drive through the canyon to see what was left of the Fall colors. There were still some very pretty spots, and we enjoyed singing along to random songs on the radio. Before we knew it, we were in good ol' Heber, UT.

Heber Main Street...always hoppin

After exploring main street a little (meaning driving for 5 minutes) we turned around in a Smith's grocery store parking lot. They had some nice looking pumpkins, so we bought 2, along with a bag of candy corn, and carved the pumpkins later that night. Neither of us are very skilled in the art of pumpkin-carving, but it was fun just the same.

Happy Halloween!

Thursday Morning

2010-09-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Today is September 9th, 2010. I'm sitting in my living room, with open textbooks, excel spreadsheets, word documents, notebooks, calculators and pens and pencils surrounding me. Oh the life of an accounting student.
But. I must say...

I LOVE FALL. It's the greatest season ever.

one main reason:

football.

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." Margaret Atwood

2010-06-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

Holas!

Somehow it is already July and I have intended to blog many many times …but have obviously failed.

I took Spring classes at BYU, including organ, voice lessons, piano lessons, university chorale, mission preparation, and music fundamentals (which I tested out of the first day of class, thank goodness). I also managed to (finally) complete my independent study course, statistics 221. Some of you have heard me rant and rave about all of the hoops I had to jump through in order to finish that class, but now it is done and I don’t have to stress about it anymore. Anyway, I spent most of spring term in the HFAC tucked away in a practice room. All that practicing seems to have paid off because I got my first 4.0 since my sophomore year of high school. Wahoo!

Besides taking classes, I returned to my wonderful job at Cougar Creations. In addition to the fact that I absolutely love working there…making copies, laminating, book-binding, etc…getting a paycheck every two weeks is a VERY welcome change. Let’s just say that recovery from London is taking a little longer than expected. We’re getting there, though.

So that’s the “boring” side to what I’ve been up to during the past 2 months. Other things that I’m doing for fun…

RAGNARRRRRRR.
I
CANNOT
WAIT.
22 days.
I’ve been training pretty well and hard for this race. There’s not much else to say about it other than I love the feeling of being able to run and run forever. Other races that I’m planning on doing in the near future are the Freedom Run 10k (July 5th), Top of Utah Marathon (September 18th. Yes CJ, I think I’m ready to register.), and the Provo Halloween Half-Marathon (October 30th).
More about Ragnar. Our team name is Gooey Nanners, and I’m running leg numero tres (that’s “three” in Spanish, mom). I made shirts for our team, and finally got them all made today at work. WAHOO.
Ok….so yeah I’ve been running. It’s fun.

I have new roommates, obviously. Brittany, Matz, and Sohea. They’re great, and we’ve done fun things. Some such things include:
Going rappelling in the canyon

Going to Sammy's for the first time for pie shakes and concerts

Throwing and attending awesome dance parties
Bonfires

Painting our living room

Making air pop
Going to IHOP for 2-for-1
Going to movies
Watching So You Think You Can Dance
Doing Pilates workout videos in our living room
etc.etc.etc.etc.etc.

I've also been spending some time with my good ol' friends Anna and Amber, my Oregon buddies. Last weekend I hiked the Y with Anna for her first time ever. I think it was quite the successful hike for the both of us. Amber and I have been spending a lot of time relaxing by the pool.

I've played with my favoritest sister Abby a few times as well. She's moving to Texas with Paul the man on Saturday (boo hiss) so I probably won't see her until Christmastime. I've had fun hanging with them for BBQ's in the canyon or at their house, shopping with Abby, and just talking about everything.

Somehow I managed to go off to San Fransisco with Cam and Calvin, my friends from London, to visit the magnificently talented Laura, my roommate from London. She was performing in a benefit concert for diabetes so that was the main purpose of our trip. I had never been to the city before, and it was pretty awesome. The long drive made for some interesting conversation, too. Top notch weekend for sure.

My mom came down to Utah for a few days just recently, and so spending time with her was pretty great, too. I'll get to see her again in just a few weeks when I go home to Oregon (right before she leaves for Girl's Camp, tee hee hee hee hee).

Aaaannnnnd that's about it. Now I'm not in classes anymore, but my work hours have doubled, so that keeps me kind of busy. And most of the things that I listed that I'm doing I'm still doing. So yeah, spring was good, summer is looking pretty good, too.

How's it gonna feel when London ends? Out of money, out of friends.

2010-05-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

Those are lyrics from a song by Cold War Kids, except I changed the word "summer" for "London". I figured it sums things up pretty well.

So, the last few days in London were spent enjoying the beautiful weather, and spending time with all of my favorite people. It was really very nice.

It's already been too long for me to remember all of the different things that we did, but I can certainly remember a few:
- Playing soccer in Hyde Park
- Staying up until 5 a.m. talking with Kira and CJ
- Buying 3 CD's at a the music exchange store on Bayswater
- Eating Nando's Nando's Nando's
- Watching movies galore
- Walking with some of my favorite girls down Oxford Street
- Seeing "Mamma Mia!"
- Doing the paddle boats on the Serpentine in Hyde Park
- Making more animal friends (i.e. swans and squirrels)
- Eating pints of Ben and Jerry's
- Learning from Dr. Susan Howe how to be a poet
- Dancing in the laundry room to JT
- Overdosing on Diet Coke
- Packing :(
- Saying goodbye to friends and London, and shedding a few tears

Pictures from the last week:

Leicester Gardens

Gotta love my home

paddle-boating in Hyde Park

Seeing planes flying out was a little surreal...I left the next morning

Well, I added it up, and the time I left the London Centre to the time I walked into my Aunt Karen's house in Lehi, UT was about 47 hours. Means of transportation included the following:
- Tube from Queensway to Bond Street, then Bond Street to Victoria
- Gatwick Express from Victoria to LGW
- Airplane from London to Fiumicino (nope, I didn't see a wink of Rome. And yes, I'm still bitter)
- Overground train in the airport
- Sketch Taxi to hotel near the airport
- Not-so-sketch shuttle back to the airport
- Plane from Fiumicino to Washington D.C.
- Plane from D.C. to Denver
- Plane from Denver to SLC
- Car from SLC to Lehi

I. Crashed. SO HARD.

So yeah, I've been back in the good ol' U.S. of A. for a little over a week now, and I think I have readjusted pretty well. I forced myself to get over jet lag as soon as possible, and it worked alright, except I think I'm still catching up on lost sleep from the past four months. I sleep a lot.

So I guess life is back to "normal" now. I'm back in Provo, with a new apartment, new roommates, new classes...same work. Just call me the copy queen. Being back has it's perks, though. I've been able to see so many people that I missed and catch up with all of them. There are still a few that I have yet to see. Between seeing family, friends, and former roommates, I guess you could say I've been busy...but honestly, sometimes I don't know what to do with myself. What on earth DID I DO before London?!!? I'll figure it out.

Best of all, I have my Nikon back in my possession. I used this blog solely for my photos before London, but now I have a little bit of a blogging obsession. We'll see what happens with it from this point forward.

Well, I guess I should put some sort of finishing BAM to my London experience. I may be one to be cheesy at times, but I'm not very good at being sentimental. I guess I can just say that London was the most fun I've had my entire life, and I can't help but smile every time I look back at pictures and memories. Even more importantly, I learned so much - about myself and everything else. Best decision of my life thus far. Well done, self.

ˈɛɪjaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥ - you suhprice I aspeak you langagee?

2010-04-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-14T15:27:00.001-07:00

*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

2010-04-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-11T07:04:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-04-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

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!

Umbrellas

2010-03-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

I have never been a big fan of when people use their blogs solely as an outlet for venting. HOWEVER, the occasional rant is perfectly justified. Well, this one is long overdue.

I really don't like using an umbrella, and I really really don't like it when other people use umbrellas improperly. Seriously, a bad umbrella incident can put a huge damper on my day.

First off, let me just say that I love how umbrellas look. Sometimes I wish I could just collect all of the cute ones for fun. In fact, Jenny bought an adorable one today! Umbrellas can also be very useful when used at the beach or outdoor-restaurant tables to help shield people from the sun. The obvious use for an umbrella, keeping the rain away, is a wonderful invention, and I have personally used an umbrella on a few occasions to keep my head dry.

Nevertheless, some days, if not most days, I wish that all umbrellas would vanish from the planet.

Here is why I do not like using an umbrella...
First, I like to keep two hands free whenever possible. Carrying an umbrella with just a shoulder is pretty much impossible. Having two hands free also means that I am able to keep both hands warm and dry in my pockets. Second, I get fed up pretty quick having to shake off and wrap up an umbrella every time I enter a building. Lastly, since I get really annoyed with people who are inconsiderate with their umbrella usage, I avoid using an umbrella to ensure that I am not being a nuisance to others who share my distaste for them.

I am quite passionate about the fact that there should be a rulebook, if not some type of law, for people who choose to use umbrellas. (Most of this applies to when it is raining) If I were to write said rulebook, here are some of the things that I would include. Perhaps these are more like directions...
- Use only as much umbrella as you need. If I had a dime for every time I have seen one person walking down the street with a golf umbrella...
- If you are walking the opposite direction of other walkers, lift UP your umbrella high enough so that it does not whack people in the head as you pass by.
- If it's raining hard enough for your umbrella to be dripping consistently, be especially aware, if not completely paranoid, that you don't create a waterfall on an innocent bystander.
- When you choose to shake off your umbrella, move away from other people. Seriously.
- If you choose to share with a friend, ensure that you are holding the umbrella high enough so that you do not crush their head with the inside structure.
- If/When you violate one of the previously stated "directions", give a sincere apology to those you may have inconvenienced. And please...change your behavior.

May I remind everyone that I grew up in Oregon, and am no stranger to rain. Before coming to London, my parents strongly urged me to bring an umbrella. I did, in fact, purchase one at good ol' Fred Meyer and brought it with me JUST IN CASE. I think I took it on our first day trip to Stonehenge, and then remembered how much I despise using an umbrella, and it has been sitting in the bottom of my drawer since then. I have other solutions to staying dry.

Today, while walking home from Queensway station, it was raining. This was no downpour, but enough precipitation for me to pop my hood on. WELL. A woman was walking towards me on the sidewalk, with an umbrella big enough for the entire state of Oklahoma. As she passed, she didn't move a single inch to the side, and did not raise her umbrella up one bit. Before I knew what hit me, her large, obnoxious umbrella whacked me in the face. Oh, don't worry, she continued as if nothing had happened.

Common courtesy, people. That is all I ask for.

Back in the laundry room.

2010-03-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

Got to love the laundry room. I swear it's one of 2 maybe 3 places in the center that I can actually focus. Well, "focus" might not be completely accurate. Sometimes I feel like a 2-year-old watching the clothes in the dryer go round and round and round and round and...yeah.

So right now I'm not totally feeling like writing a summary of the past weeks events, so I think another list will suffice.

Friday:
- Back in London
- Borough Market (sausage, rocket, and bell pepper sandwich; carrot, orange, and lemon juice; and lemon poppyseed loaf) I love Borough Market. Pretty sure we're going back again tomorrow. I have yet to try the ostrich burgers and I hear that they're pretty fabulous.
- Tate Modern museum. I've given my opinion about modern art already...I enjoyed most of it, although there were a few things that were just a little too much for me.
- Wuthering Heights (the movie)

Saturday:
- First half of the theater walk with Michelle. Along the way we stopped at Somerset House and the National Portrait Gallery. Check and check for my "still need to see" list.

Good morning, London!

Do YOU know the muffin man?

- Covent Garden during the daytime. Two words: BAD street performers...ok 3 words.

That was the coolest thing they did for the whole 10 minutes Michelle and I watched.

- Pit stop at Starbucks to revive our legs and read a bit
- British Library
- Tesco run - dear Tesco, you never fail to make me happy

Sunday:
- Gave a talk in church and realized that no matter how hard I try, I always sound monotone when speaking in front of people. I'll have to keep working on that one.
- Nap.
- CES fireside
- mmmm, homework

Monday:
- Class day
- Group trip to Wigmore Hall for an afternoon concert. Violin and Piano. Bartok and Beethoven
- Finished the theater walk and did a little bit of shopping. Came home empty handed.
- Interviews at Hyde Park chapel's FHE and had Frog frozen yogurt. The shop is called Frog, the yogurt was plain, with pomegranate seeds. YUM.

Tuesday:
- Lazy day; i.e. lots of homework, piano time, nap, etc.
- Saw Lion King! Check. Except the box office was messing up people's tickets and the lady took our tickets away, so now I have no souvenir to prove that I saw it. Oh well. I loved that dancing in this production - it's one of those things that made it unique from the other shows that I've already seen.

Wednesday:
- Morning run with Christina - fabulous.
- Last day trip, except that next week is essentially a week-long day trip. We're going to tour around the northern part of England from Monday-Friday. Everyone is REALLY looking forward to being on the coach together.
- First stop: St. Alban Cathedral and Verulamium museum (say it 10 times fast). My favorite thing from the museum was that they had key-rings. But literally it was a ring that was also a key...so basically when you need to unlock whatever it is you need to unlock, the key is right there on your finger. Very clever, Romans, very clever indeed.

- Second stop: Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial for WWII. This was the first time I had seen an American flag in a while, and it was a very pretty sight. The grounds were beautiful, and it's one of those things that you can't help but be affected by when looking around at all of the names and headstones. There were almost 4,000 buried, and another 5,000+ names on a wall of missing persons.

- Third stop: Cambridge University. I think the events at Cambridge require their own bullet points.
- King's College Chapel. Beautiful, as expected

Karalyn, Me, Michelle

- Punting on the Cam River. Our guide was nice to look at...as were the bridges and college grounds

The "Sigh Bridge" - modeled after the one in Venice

- Exploring in and out of the cute shops - mostly chocolate shops. Jenny and I split 2 pieces of fudge from Fudge Kitchen. It was so good.

Antiques Shop

- Fitzwilliam Museum. We got there right near closing, so we had to do a quick sweep around the art that we came to see. Although, since we were there right before closing, the museum was SILENT. I don't think I've been somewhere that quiet for a looooong time. We also got to walk up a itty bitty spiral staircase to get to some art that was kind of a balcony around the whole room. Not sure if that's a very good description, but it was kind of cool.
- Got asked for money twice...that's always a little awkward, since I want to be a good christian and help people out...but at the same time MOST, if not all, are just out to make a pretty pound. In fact, we saw one guy wandering around who had asked us for bus fare a couple of hours earlier. He didn't appear to be looking for a bus.
- Got home and studied

Thursday:
- Oh goodness, that was today.
- 5-class day, wahoo.
- Civ class took a walk through Hyde Park to the Albert memorial...we all wore little headsets so we could listen to Dr. Macfarlane as we walked. As silly as we looked, I think it was a very effective class period. And the daffodils are beginning to POP!
- After British Lit, the class went to the Tate Britain to check out a couple of paintings. I forgot to change my shoes, and one of my feet was completely soaked by the time I got to Queensway station. Can you say "squish"?
- Went on a run with Christina. My legs are a'gonna be sore tomorrow.
- Oh hey, and now I'm doing laundry.

Yes well, life is still great here in London. Everyone is starting to get a little sad at the fact that our days left here are slowly declining. Today I realized that I love having dinner in the servery with 10 or so people at a table. It gets crazy sometimes, especially when you're at the end of the table and no one passes the salad dressing, but it's fun to just be around so many awesome people all of the time. Yeah, I guess that's my sentimental blurp for tonight.

Je suis...the Eiffel Tower?

2010-03-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning I woke up and was on the tube at 7 a.m. on my way to Paris.

85 hours
5 crepes
5 museums
4 churches
3 pastries
1 eiffel tower
and
who KNOWS how many croissants, stairs, and laughs later...

...I was on the tube coming back to the London Center. At the risk of sounding completely cliche/bubbly/overthetophitwithraysofSUNSHINE...let me just say that the city of Paris may or may not have entirely stolen my heart in those three and a half days.

Let's just start from the beginning, shall we?
Upon arriving in Paris, the entire group immediately got on a coach and headed off to Chartres (pronounced just like "shart"...don't worry, I've made plenty of immature jokes about it already). The main attraction there is the cathedral, but we had a little bit of time before entering the cathedral to wander around the small city and practice our French. Just for the record, I'm really, REALLY bad at French.
Anyway, after turning a few corners and getting some euros to burn, we ran into a carousel (eyes open wide, smiles get bigger). And OH YES we made spectacles of ourselves while riding it. So fun, and so worth it.

Most everything else in the city was closed at that point in the afternoon, so we wandered up and down a few streets and then headed back to walk around the cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful, and we had the privilege of having Malcom Miller as our guide. Apparently he's slightly famous in the Chartres Cathedral touring world...unfortunately I had never heard of him. Regardless, he was a very informative guide. The main attraction of Chartres (besides good ol' Malcom) is a relic; they have a garment/cloth that is supposedly the item of clothing worn by Mary as she gave birth to Christ. It's been dated to the correct time period, but who knows. Pretty interesting.

West front of the cathedral.

After taking the coach back into Paris, we checked into our hotel. Michelle and I got to be roommates, and I kept telling her over and over again that in the Fall we're going to be REAL roommates, and asking her if she was sure she could handle it.
I mean...after this shebangle, wouldn't you be a little concerned?

"I love HOTELS" - leaps onto bed and knocks over table.

Later, we headed out for dinner. I don't remember what the restaurant was called, but it was definitely a place with French cuisine. I ordered a smoked salmon salad. YUM, but I'm serious when I say that there was about 2 pounds of raw salmon on that salad and I could not finish it. Others in our group did not quite enjoy the whole uncooked-meat experience.

After dinner, we all headed off to work our magic with the Paris metro system.
Destination, Eiffel Tower.
This monument completely exceeded my expectations. It's HUGE, and BRIGHT, and TALL, and....AWESOME. We didn't have time to go up it, so we just walked around and took some pictures, followed by chocolate-filled crepes.

Calvin, Jenny, Mary, Me, Laura, Michelle, Cam

OH! Fun story from the Hotel room. Every time Michelle and I turned on the TV, the Hotel's "home channel" automatically comes on with the song "A Paris" playing. Also, if you use the TV as an alarm, the song starts playing. I had the song stuck in my head the entire trip.

TUESDAY.

First stop: Versailles as a group.
I'll admit, Versailles was not my favorite, but I think that was mostly due to the fact that tons of people (mainly Americans) are on Spring break this week and the next, so the Palace was packed full of people. It was a little difficult to enjoy it all, but the hall of mirrors was cool, and I absolutely loved the wallpaper. Yes, the wallpaper. I was happy to get out into the sun and walk around the gardens a bit.

Michelle and I ran into a few girls out on the gardens, and we all went to the Musee d'Orsay together. These are some of my favorite artists that I was able to see here:

- Renoir
- Degas
- Claude Monet
- Cezanne
- Van Gogh
...and a few others.

We then walked along the Seine and over to the Pantheon so we could check it off of our Classics "list of things to see in Paris". Things like this make me more and more excited for Rome.

Arrin, Michelle, Me, Rachel

We booked it back to the Orsay to meet up with some other friends, and then crashed on the steps outside of the museum since we'd all been walking all day long. A clarinet street performer started playing right in front of us...he wasn't very good.

Tired feet.

After grabbing a pannini for dinner and finally finding our friends, we all went off to get tickets for a river boat cruise. The cruise was so much fun. We sat around the outside of the boat, out of earshot (hopefully) from the people inside...

Next step was hopping over to wait in line to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. By this point most of us girls were suffering for a bathroom, and we'd all been on our feet for about twelve hours, but once we stepped onto the elevator and watched Paris get small and smaller below us, it all became so worth it. The view from the top was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen.

Michelle, Laura, and Me at the top.

View - the Arc de Triumph in the top left corner

Another view.

Crepes and an "oh shoot the metro's closed" taxi ride summed up the evening.

WEDNESDAY

Also known as the best day ever.
Started off the day with Notre Dame.

Then walked across the way to Saint Chapelle...known for it's beautiful stained-glass windows.

After Saint Chapelle, ten of us (Laura M, Mary, Jenny, Christina, Laura N, Brittany, Kira, Rachel, Michelle, and me) formed a little group and ended up staying together the entire day. It was great :)

On the way to the Cluny Museum, we passed by the best pastry stand, and I had an almond chocolate pastry. It was so stinking super delicious. The Cluny museum was quaint, and the unicorn tapestries were nice, too.
After taking in a little bit more of the sunshine, we headed off to find a market that has a name...but I'm blanking on it right now. It was great just walking around the streets of Paris.

Luxembourg Gardens: Jenny, Michelle, Me, Laura

The market was more of a street, but we found some pretty cute little shops. Best of all, we found the best savory crepes to grace the planet. I kid you not. Egg, cheese, ham, lettuce, tomato. Right after, we walked up to an ice cream shop (I know mom, I talk about food all of the time, but I promise, it really is important). I had pistachio, white chocolate, and hazelnut. We then hung around the market for a little bit longer, just long enough for a couple of people to get pooped on by pigeons. Perfect afternoon. OH WAIT. It gets better.

Eating our crepes on the curb - CJ, Laura, Jenny, Rachel, and Michelle

All ten of us took the metro over near the Louvre and then walked all 2 miles down Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph.

little pond outside the Louvre where little kids use sticks to hit the boats around.

Mary, Laura, Rachel, Me, Kira, Brittany

I didn't know that cars could fly in Paris!!

Climbing up the Arc was quite the feat, after all the walking and climbing we had already done that day (goodness, is this really still the same day as Notre Dame?). I loved the view from the top, especially watching the traffic below. The 10 of us just sort of sat down and hung out for a while.

NO SPEEDOS ALLOWED.

The group (commonly known as the "dream team"): Christina, Me, Brittany, Kira, Laura M, Rachel, Michelle, Jenny, Mary, Laura N

From back down on the bottom.

Next stop: the Louvre. I was a little bit intimidated from the outside, which was completely justified knowing how much wonderful art was inside. I got a little overwhelmed at first, but ended up being able to see some pretty awesome things (yes, including the Mona Lisa). Michelle, Rachel, Jenny, and I ended up staying until about closing time, before heading home after a very, very long day. My feet were throbbing as I fell asleep, and I'm surprised I could stand at all the next day.

Taking a break outside

Touching the top of the Pyramid

Charles V apartments inside the Louvre. Can you say ornate?

THURSDAY

Our last day in Paris was spent going to a couple of museums, and then up to the Sacre Coer. The first museum we went to was the Orangerie, which houses the two Water Lily rooms by Monet. Once upon a time I learned about these two rooms and always thought it would be the coolest thing to go see them...well, now I have. Yes, it was as good as I expected. The Orangerie had a few others of my most favorite paintings, including "Two girls at the piano" by Renoir. I literally gasped when I turned around and saw it on one of the walls. SO COOL.

Next stop was the Rodin Musem, the sculptor. Most of the museum is outside, which was an interesting change. I thought some deep thoughts next to "The Thinker", but I was blown away by seeing his marble hand sculptures. Beautiful.

Our last big stop was heading up and out to Sacre Coer Basilica. I had been looking forward to doing this for a while, and am happy to say that it did not disappoint me. The inside of the church was gorgeous, and I loved how open everything was. I've noticed that a lot of cathedrals have tons of tombs and plaques everywhere, and at times I think it takes away from the beauty of the actual structure. After we got out of the basilica, we wandered around the outside, and into a few shops and such. There were tons of people asking to sketch us out on the street, and I had been told that it is a fun thing to do, so once someone offered us a decent price, Rachel, Michelle and I decided to go for it. NONE of them were accurate at all, but we were laughing for about half an hour afterward at the experience. I'm definitely hanging that up in my room. HA.

does it look like me?

Since we had a little bit of time before we had to head back to the train station, the three of us headed back over along the Seine to do some last-minute souvenir shopping from the vendors on the street. I ended up buying a few prints of my favorite scenes. And I love the Seine River. Leaving Paris was sad for me, but when I'm coming home to London, I can't really complain. Paris, thanks for a great week.

Woooooosh!

2010-03-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry Dad, "woosh" does not refer to "swoosh" (i.e. basketball). Just that I can't believe another week is gone. This week was full of birthdays, shows, and lots and lots of homework. But hey, I'd rather be doing homework in London than in Provo.

Birthdays this week included:
Michelle's 20th
Kalyn's 19th
AND
the beginning of the 20 days of Brittany Carpenter (it's like the 12 days of Christmas, only not. comprenda?)

Shows this week included:
Monday - War Horse
Tuesday - 39 Steps
Friday - London Philharmonic Orchestra

I also took two midterms today.

Other significant events:
- 10-mile hike/nature walk on Tuesday with the Chittock brothers. (sang old girl's camp songs, chased sheep, pet a horse)
- Met a new friend, Budge, and created a new catch-phrase: "I'm gonna pull a Budge in the library."
- Day trip to Stourhead, Jane Austen's house, and Winchester
- Last day of kitchen crew, EVER
- New underwear...sorry, TMI
- Bottomless soda at Nando's
- Weather in the 50s

...more to come, since we leave for Paris on Monday.

The Madness Commonly Known as March.

2010-03-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Here in London we are busy busy busy all of the time. Yes, just like a busy bee.
On Monday, after classes and before MIKA, Michelle and I started the first part of the "city walk", one of the walks required for our class. We went in a really beautiful church and found some good stores for window shopping. On Tuesday after classes, we went back out to the same area to visit Dr. Samuel Johnson's house and finish the rest of the walk. The Johnson house was...educational, especially the 25-minute long movie. No really, we had some fun wandering around through all of the rooms. I loved flipping through the dictionary that he wrote.

The rest of the walk was through what I like to call "the future Annie" part of London. Basically we walked by a bunch of really awesome business buildings and practically everyone on the streets there was in a suit. I was wearing a bright pink jacket...how embarrassing! I think walking through that part of town gave me the courage to finally submit my application for the accounting program later that night. Wish me luck!

the Pickle

Our Wednesday day trip was long, but fabulous. Our first stop was Warwick Castle, where I spent most of the time with Michelle, Brittany, and Kira. I heard Warwick Castle best described as what Disneyland would be like if everything was closed. We still had fun running around through the towers, posing with the wax figures, and walking through the gardens, singing Kira's made-up song called "Guildeland". I got very up close and personal with a few peacocks as well.

Being dorks at Warwick

"Welcome to the 11th century!!"

around the gardens

posing with the wax people...bump it!

sweet nothings.

Hello Mr. Peacock.

After Warwick, the rest of the day was pretty much devoted to none other than William Shakespeare. We first stopped at Anne Hathaway's house, Shakespeare's wife. Cute and quaint. We took advantage of the "woodland walk" in the hour that we had to spend on the grounds.

The house

Next was Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon. I actually really enjoyed this tour of his birthplace. I kept thinking over and over if he knew just how good he was. I mean seriously, people spend their whole lives studying his plays. Pretty cool guy. We also visited the Nash house, and his burial place in Holy Trinity Church. We then had a couple hours to spare before going to see King Lear. Michelle and I wandered through some really cute shops before they closed down, and then hit up Poundland for theatre candy. We found dinner at an old pub called Windmill Inn. Two meals for 10 pounds. SCORE.

King Lear was excellent. I was worried at first that I wouldn't be able to really get into the play, but I absolutely loved it. It was an excellent production, and totally worth getting home at almost 1 AM for. That's right, a 17-hour day trip.

After my five classes on Thursday morning, all I had time to do was go for a run and shower before kitchen crew started. That's right, it's my second week of kitchen crew for the semester. Just call me Hobart girl.
(for those of you reading this not familiar with the inner-workings of kitchen crew, the formerly mentioned Hobart is the 'machine' of sorts that we use to sanitize the dishes. I am pretty much a professional at maximizing the capacity of each load so as to minimize the time spent on kitchen crew.)
A Gelato Mio adventure topped off the evening.

Friday was a great day. We went as a group to Keats House, in Hampstead, which was adorable. Better yet, the day was sunny. Michelle and I then tromped across Hampstead Heath in the mud and sunshine to Kenwood House, which stars in the movie "Knotting Hill". After wandering through the house, Sarah Shepherd, Brittany, Kira and I sat on a bench on the grounds and enjoyed the sunshine for a while. We stopped by pizza express for an excellent lunch on the way home.

on the front stoop of Keats house

I'm still not sure what this means...

Hampstead Heath

On Friday night, Michelle and I ventured out to the Hard Rock Cafe. The actual restaurant was really busy, so we bypassed our plan to get milkshakes and instead just went to the store across the street. Going down in their vault was pretty cool. Lots of old guitars and crazy outfits worn by artists in their music videos. It was fun to see it all.

Since we were still hungry for desert, we hopped on over to Covent Garden and ate some excellent chocolate fudge cake in a little Italian cafe. I love the Italian food here, and can't wait for Rome in only six weeks!

Saturday was another class day, but I only had religion, so that was nice. After a sunny-day run and class, Michelle and I went to Camden Market, who everyone seems to have been raving about. It's basically Portland's Saturday Market, only bigger and with more desirable things to buy. I haggled for my first time with a lady from Hong Kong. The whole time I kept thinking of Abby's stories from when she was in China last winter...the conversation went something like this:

me: no, that's ok, maybe I'll think about it and come back...
her: wait, wait! Today a very slow day, I give you very good price, just for you, heh?

It went on for about five minutes or so, and my favorite line was, "I HAVE OTHER COLORS!" I ended up buying the bag after talking it down 5 pounds. Two points for me!

After Camden, I convinced Michelle that she was, in fact, NOT too tired to go to the Tate Britain museum. I'm so glad that we went, because I loved it. They have an entire gallery devoted just to JMW Turner, one of my favorite painters. I was smiling the entire time. There were also a few other rooms that we went into that were more "modern". I love trying to interpret modern art. I think it's funny when people seem to be offended by modern art, as though the artist were trying to trick them. Michelle and I had fun making up stories about the artists' intentions for their works. Fun stuff. There were also words and phrases on the walls in one of the open areas. Our favorite:

"If only you were hot, or cold.
But you are neither hot or cold.
I am going to vomit you out of my mouth"

Pure, glorious, hilarious. I think it means that "you" are lukewarm, and taste bad...hence, the vomiting.

Once we got back to the center, the rest of the night was pretty relaxed. Michelle's grandpa ordered her pizza again, so that meant free dinner for me (wahoo!) and the rest of the night was devoted to studying.
Good week indeed. Today is another sunny Sunday.

Blue eyes, blue eyes, what's the matter, matter...

2010-03-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

Monday was a day that I had been looking forward to for quite some time. It was concert day. The artist of choice? MIKA. Although I'm not a MIKA fanatic by any means, I knew that he would be an awesome performer because of his flamboyant style and upbeat, happy music. Goodness, that was an underestimation. I know I say that a lot of things exceed my expectations, but this really did. SUCH a fun night. I guess the best way is to walk through the night with pictures. Thanks to Anna for lending me your memory card :)

hanging out, waiting for the tube

During "Big Girl". That's just a small taste of some of the staging that they did. It was a little sad, though, because we were the only people in the entire theater that seemed to be having a good time. I guess going to a concert for Londoners means standing like a pole with your camera out for 3 hours. I embraced the opportunity to jump around and dance. Fun fun fun!

At one point, they had tons of giant balloons and confetti all in there air. And is there anything better than gold confetti?? Well...don't answer that.

At the end of the concert, we caught one of the giant balloons, and brought it all the way home. Yes, we took that giant thing on the tube. Surprisingly, no one even did a double-take.

As we walked out of the theater, there were some "vendors" selling these shirts for 5 pounds each. Impulse buy.

Well, I went to sleep with my head ringing, and woke up happy. Thanks for a good show, MIKA.

Wales numba 2...is cool.

2010-03-04T14:14:00.001-08:00

Alright. So the morning of day 2 in Wales was great. I woke up, and turned on the TV to some crazy fish show. Seriously, maybe it's a good thing I never watch TV, even in the states - because if I did, I'd probably just waste away watching random shows about fish. NOT fishing shows...don't worry, I'm not THAT crazy.
Alright, after leaving the beautiful and spacious hotel, we headed to Caerphilly Castle. I LOVED it. Probably because it was pretty much the coolest playground I've ever been to. Michelle and I had a party running up and down all of the stairs, through the corridors, tromping across the moat bridges, and playing wartime with the giant crossbows and trebuchets. Once again, I felt like I was seven years old again. That was probably in my top two or three favorite Castles so far.

The Great Hall

Holding up the leaning tower.

Being a dork and diving into the moat...strike that...pretending to dive into the moat.

After the Castle, we set off for our Church history sites. We went to Benbow farm first, where Wilford Woodruff baptized many early converts to the church. The first ones were baptized in this pond in early March, and I couldn't believe that hundreds of people volunteered to get in that water seeing how cold it was that day. Brrrrr. I guess baptism is KIND OF important. Either way, it was beautiful countryside.

The Pond

We then drove down the hill a ways to see an old parish church where many of the converts would have attended, and many convert families have a long history of ancestors buried in the church cemetery.

Next stop was Heredforshire Beacon. Basically it's a really really big hill that looks over Wales. Significance? Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, and Willard Richards had meetings about the church up there. Pretty cool. Once again, I couldn't imagine anyone discussing anything there, because it was cold, and windier than anything I have ever experienced. I'm serious. I jumped up in the air and it moved me over about a foot.

the view

roommates

super duper windy

Brittany thought it was windy, too.

Last stop was the Gadfield Elm Chapel. This is a church meetinghouse (supposedly the oldest LDS meeting place in the entire world). Since the missionaries weren't there to let us in, we got to do the special "answer-the-questions-and-punch-in-the-code" thing. See photo below for details. We all gathered inside and learned a little bit more about the history of the building, and listened to our friend/guide Pete read us a journal entry from Wilford Woodruff about his experience preaching there. Things like that remind me that the early members of the church were just regular people too, and it makes me grateful for their hard work. At the end we sang "The Spirit of God", which was very cool. An ending to a very nice time in Wales.

Do YOU know the answers?

the chapel

Wales is cool.

2010-03-02T01:19:00.000-08:00

Hello.
Time to recount the past week.
Last Wednesday night the whole center went out to see Shakespeare's Twelfth Night play. It was the first time I had seen a Shakespeare play live, and I must admit that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Tomorrow night we're seeing King Lear as a group. We'll see how I enjoy the tragedies.
Early on Thursday morning, meaning 6 AM, we all headed off on the coach for an overnight trip in Wales. After a couple of hours on the coach, we had our first stop at Tintern Abbey. William Wordsworth wrote a poem about this place and we had a class assignment here to go off and meditate or just observe our surroundings for a while and relate what we saw/felt to a past experience. With the morning fog, white doves, grainy dirt, and the sound of an occasional car driving by, I couldn't help but thing of the Oregon Coast (fog/haze, doves/seagulls, dirt/sand, car/waves). Now I just have to write a paper on it. Besides the whole meditation thing, wandering around the Abbey was really amazing. I have a picture here where I used Michelle to show the scale of how big this place is. Very beautiful. Oh, AND! A bunch of us got matching mood rings at the gift shop. I don't remember the last time I had a mood ring, but it has been far too long, because I love checking every five minutes to see if the colors have changed. Call me crazy.

Exploring the Abbey

As soon as I turned a corner and saw this part of the Abbey, my jaw dropped, literally.

Our next stop was THE BIG PIT (say it with a deep, announcer-man voice).
This is an old coal mine that has been turned into a tourist site. We split up into small groups to go down into the mine, and I am happy to say that my group's guide, Wayne, was excellent. He was cracking jokes the whole time, but knew what he was talking about. After touring more places than I can count, I discovered that I am becoming picky with my tour guides...wow, that's sad.
Yes, but we got to wear hard hats with the flashlights and that whole get-up. Walking around down in the mine wasn't as nerve shredding as I thought it would be...in fact, it reminded me a lot of the wartime tunnels and the underground tube, believe it or not.

Our last stop of the evening was a history of Wales Museum...sort of hard to describe, but basically there was an indoor museum that was pretty lame, and then a little village outside and some pretty gardens and all sorts of things to explore.
Good things about the indoor museum:
- the random video about Italians who came to Wales had really awesome music and I danced in my seat the entire time.
- no one was in the museum, and so Michelle and I basically ran rampant throughout the exhibits. The fashion room had some swinging music playing, too.

hats on display

they also had some quilts on display. A little reminder of Momma Donna.

After a quick breeze through the museum, we headed outside, and NO ONE was in sight. For a minute I was a bit worried that we had missed some sort of memo that we were all going somewhere together, but then got distracted somehow. Anyway, Michelle and I wandered over to the gardens making Welsh Troll voices as we crossed under a dark bridge. I felt just like I was seven years old again.

Michelle got some pretty pictures of the gardens, but we've had some difficulty transferring her pictures to my laptop. Oh well. That's a little piece of how pretty it was.
More wandering around the gardens, a quick browse through the manor house, and some exploration of the village and I was tuckered out. We headed off to the hotel in Cardiff (yes, hotel, notice the lack of an 'S' in that word) and got there just in time to be starving for dinner. My fabulous roommate was my Dublin buddy, Sarah...and the rooms were big and fabulous.
We wandered over to the main shopping area to find a place to eat, and the Olympics were being played on a giant screen in the middle of this square of sorts.

Yes, it was curling, and those were the only seconds I watched of the Olympics (alright, minus the end of the USA - Canada hockey game).
Brittany, Kira, Michelle and I went to a cute little Italian restaurant for dinner. It was perfect. Really.

Sarah and I finished off the day with some BBC television.
I think day two of Wales deserves another post...but I'm getting tired, so it will just have to wait.

Come on Spring!

2010-02-22T10:15:00.001-08:00

As much as I love the rain and cloudy days here in London, I am starting to ache for sunshine. Last Saturday we got a taste of [hopefully] what is yet to come. SUNSHINE.
Michelle and I revisited Cafe Diana with Kira and Brittany for brunch. The first time we went was the very first day we got here. Happy to say that it was just as good as I remembered.

SUNSHINE!

Then we headed off for a nice long walk. We walked through the ever-beautiful Hyde Park, over to Buckingham Palace, wandered a bit through some nearby streets to complete one of our London Walks (class assignment), and finished with a nice cup of hot chocolate in St. James Park...I spilled on myself. Of course.
I loved how the sun was out, and it was "warm" enough for me to go out without my black coat, which I wear pretty much every day.
We continued on to the tube station, and saw some people taking a picture with a phone booth and Big Ben in the background. We felt really silly doing it, but we stopped and posed too.

That night about 18 of us went to Zizzi for some great Italian food, and to celebrate Sarah's 20th birthday. Perfect ending to a sunny day.

Today it sleeted. Cooooommmmeee on SPRING!

Hairspray

2010-02-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

I didn't think it was possible to top Phantom. Well...

My list of musicals that I wanted to see while coming here included the following:

- Wicked
- Les Miserables
- Phantom of the Opera
- Lion King

Notice that Hairspray is not on that list. Well, I decided to go with a group on Thursday night, since some other girls had gone already and raved about it. We got there, and ended up getting £85/$130 seats (best seats in the house) for £22.50. Thank you International Student ID Card.

"premium seats"

The show started, and I swear I was smiling, laughing, or applauding throughout the entire show. If you ever get the chance to see Hairspray, GO. You will not regret it. The characters Edna and Wilbur were the best. During "You're timeless to me" they started improving, and apparently they do a different improv bit every night. SO HILARIOUS. They couldn't even keep it together. *Sigh* So there's my plug for Hairspray. Pure, joyous entertainment.

Arrin and I before the show

Evacuate the Dancefloor - DUBLIN

2010-02-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night, Michelle, Sarah, and I ran down the street to the London Center after returning from our few days in Ireland. We were certainly excited to be back in London, but Dublin was fabulous. We took tons of pictures and Sarah is an avid video-er, so that was fun. Here's my best description of our days in the land of the Irish.

We had a smooth trip over, and arrived at our hostel sometime around 8 or 9 PM. We had a room with three bunks, six beds, and so we opened the door to find a couple of roommates from South Korea. They didn't talk much, but were nice enough. After a trip down O'Connell Street to check out the area, we turned in to rest up for the next big day.

Thursday morning was certainly eventful. Sarah made the mistake of volunteering to be the first one to take a shower. After a few minutes, Michelle and I hear her say, "WOOOOW...AH! AH! Uhhhh...oh OW oW oOWWOWOoow, ok I'm getting out!" Basically, the shower had such high water pressure that it shot horizontally, and when she tried to decrease it the pressure by, get this, turning off the cold water...she was scalded by the boiling hot water that took its place. Poor Sarah.
After getting ready, we headed out to O'Connell Street to meet our day trip tour bus. This turned out to be one of my favorite things from the weekend. Our driver was named Martin, and was born and raised in the Dublin area. We also had a couple from France, Spain, a few women from Austria, and a few other Americans.
First Stop - Dun Laoghaire - I would pronounce it correctly for you if I could.

We then drove further South into Wicklow County, and drove by Bono's house. You know, just another day in the life of me...seeing Bono's house. Whatever. After we got more into the mountains (which should just be called hills) we stopped on the road where a scene in P.S. I Love You was filmed, and got a great view of Guinness Lake.

Some more driving and listening to Martin's Irish music, and we stopped at our main destination, Glendalough.

This is me participating in an Irish "tradition". If you can wrap your arms around the cross, then you get a wish. My arms weren't long enough. Oh well, next time. Then we walked over the Round Tower, and decided to hug that, too. Then we took a walk to see the lower and upper lakes, and also Poulanass Waterfall (we joked a bit about that name). It was gorgeous, and reminded me a lot of Oregon and Waterton, Canada.

After leaving the nature of Glendalough, we stopped for lunch, and had our pick of a few pubs and coffee shops for lunch. The three of us headed over to a little shop called Glendalough Fayre, and it was fabulous. The people were really friendly, and my soup was hot. Success. A few more stops on our trip to get more views of the hills, lakes and animals summed up our trip. We actually stopped near a field full of sheep, and they all full-on sprinted over to the fence to say hello to us. Although, once they saw that we had no food, the turned around and trotted back over to the other side of the field.
We took a break in our hostel to warm up and rest our feet, and then headed out to find some dinner before our pub crawl. We had dinner at a boxty house, and I had some fabulous potato dumplings with red bell peppers. Yummmmmm. The pub crawl was probably my favorite thing about our entire trip. Loved it loved it loved it. Basically a couple of musicians led us around to three different pubs, and we had our own room where they would just talk about their instruments and play music for us. There was a group of about six other Americans who were there celebrating Kevin's birthday. They even had matching I <3 Kevin shirts. A very entertaining bunch. It wasn't long after they found out that Sarah was from Utah that they pinned us as Mormon students. I guess the fact that we were only drinking diet coke tipped them off, too.

On our way back to the hostel we stopped in a little convenience store so Sarah could find some batteries for her camera, and the greatest thing happened - we found crispy M&Ms! Yep, we bought 2 big bags and proceeded to consume moooost of the when we got to the hostel. I think the last time I had crispy M&Ms was probably on a family drive to Canada when I was 12 or something. We called them our "happy pills".

The next morning we started off doing a "hop on hop off" bus tour of London. It was surprisingly entertaining, especially the live commentators. Stops of interest included St. Patrick's Cathedral, Guinness Storehouse, and Phoenix Park. Most of the time we just rode around on the top level of the bus and ate more M&Ms.

After we finished our time on the bus, we stopped into the Hard Rock Cafe, did a bit of shopping, and bought movie tickets to "Valentines Day" for that night. We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon, ate dinner in a pub, and then went to the movie. It was a good, relaxing day.

On Saturday, we had to check out of our hostel in the morning and carry our giant backpacks around with us all day. It was dubbed our Museum-ing day.
First stop: Trinity College and the Book of Kells.

Second stop: St. Valentine's remains at Whitefriar Church.
Third Stop: Dublin Castle.

Fourth Stop: Lunch at Bass Ass Cafe and some wandering around Temple Bar.

Fifth Stop: National Gallery of Ireland.
Sixth Stop: St. Stephen's Green and Oscar Wilde monument.

Seventh Stop: River Liffey to wait for our driver to pick us up for the airport.

Hanging out at the airport...typical.

The trip home was good, but long. By the time we got back to the center we were all really wiped out. Actually, by the time we got onto the Gatwick express we were wiped out. But it was a great weekend. It was one of those things that everyone had been looking forward to since before even coming to London, and now that it's over, I almost can't believe it. Two months from today will be our last day in London.

2010-02-10T06:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I am packed and ready to head off to the airport here in just a few minutes.
But, I don't want the first few days of this week to be overlooked, because they were great.
Monday was a class day, but after classes I went out with Les-bum to get tickets to a London Philharmonic Orchestra concert in March. We went over the Millennium Bridge and got some hot chocolate, because it was really cold out. The tube ride back was rather eventful...a lady came on and was crying...long story...it was a mess though. Then later that night we went to Phantom of the Opera! Hands down, my favorite musical yet. So so so so so fabulous. Even from the top back corner of the balcony.
Yesterday was our day trip, since our extended weekend is...well...today (Wednesday). We went to Runnymede, Windsor Castle, and Stoke Poges. It was a relatively short day (we got home around 5 PM instead of 7 or 8 PM) and Michelle, Leslie and I went to Giraffe for dinner. Came home and watched P.S. I Love You, because I'm going to DUBLIN today! wahoo.
Bad news...I woke myself up last night because I was uncontrollably shaking. After a couple of minutes of this it finally hit me...Oh, I have to throw up. Yes, my friends. Giraffe gave me food poisoning. Gross. Good news. I feel perfectly fine today! Thank goodness.
Looking forward to spending my time in Dublin with Michelle and Sarah.
and...off we go!!

Leg It!!

2010-02-06T13:15:00.000-08:00

As promised, I am putting up some pictures from Wednesday's day-trip. I guess they are pretty self-explanatory? Hopefully.

At the beginning of our Culture and Community class this semester, we learned about culture shock. There's about five stages:
1. Honeymoon
2. Blue/Hermit
3. Irritation
4. Acceptance
5. Bi-cultural
Last week I convinced myself that I was in the hermit stage. I was fine with staying inside, and didn't feel all that motivated to go out and do things (of course I still did things, I just wasn't the one to initiate it). Lucky for me, I'm pretty sure that yesterday (Friday) pushed me out of the hermit stage straight on into the irritation stage!!! YAY! No yeah, but seriously. Ya know?

5 February was a wonderful day. Definitely makes my top three favorite days here.
We always have a group outing on Fridays. This week we were going to the Banquet Hall and The British Museum. We were told that the Banquet House wasn't very impressive, and I had already been to The British Museum three times. Needless to say, I woke up a little less than motivated. How foolish I was.
We all arrived at the Banquet House at 10 AM, but there had been a military party the night before and the cleanup wasn't finished...i.e. we couldn't go in yet. With and hour left to kill before meeting back up again, Michelle, Brittany, Kira and I headed over to St. James' Park and Buckingham Palace. The morning sun had burned the clouds away, and it was a gorgeous day. The morning got better and better as we fed the squirrels peanuts, watched the ducks, and walked closer to Buckingham Palace.

I didn't really have a picture in my head of what the Palace looked like, but once I saw it, I was very impressed. I couldn't help but think of that scene in "Cool Runnings" where Yul Brenner has a picture of Buckingham Palace, his dream home.

Anyway.
The Banquet House was...neat. Big room, cool ceiling, good party venue. We laid down in the middle of the Hall and played the "Ha" game.

A bunch of us went to Pret a Manger for lunch. I had spinach and nutmeg soup, and the best banana I have ever had. I'm not kidding. This was one delectable banana.
We were about to head down into the tube and over to the British Museum, but we had a bit of time and the sun was out. So what did we do? Climbed on the lions at Trafalgar Square, of course! Once we made a complete spectacle of ourselves (and had random people taking pictures of us...wierd) we got off and headed to the British Museum.

My fourth time in this museum was splendid. There's tons of stuff there, and I'm sure I'll be back again at least once or twice before I go home.

As I said, the sun was out, and some would say it was even warm outside. So I went for a nice run around Hyde Park. I feel like I've finally been able to get back into running since coming here. For some reason, last Fall I sort of fell out of my usual running routine. But now I'm getting excited for my second round of the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage this July. I've been making my training schedule already, and looking up other races to get me prepared. I even got Leslie (my lovely roommate that looks like Emma Watson, or Hermione) to agree to run a half-marathon at the end of the summer with me. One of these days I might be crazy enough to try a full marathon, but that day has not yet come.
Yes, well.
The rest of the afternoon was good, and then that evening almost everyone in the Center headed over to the Hyde Park Chapel for a YSA Dance. Oh my, it was so fun. Picture 30+ American girls dancing like crazy in the middle of the dance floor, and everyone else sort of dancing around the sides. My favorite was when "Party in the USA" (Miley Cyrus) and "Empire Sate of Mind" (Jay-Z) came on. I'm sure we looked completely ridiculous.
So that was yesterday...

And I know I'm in the irritation stage of culture shock because today I was very angry with the public transportation systems. From now on, I prefer to leg it.

Funk Shui.

2010-02-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

Leslie: Well...I'm reading your blog, so I don't want to write it.

Michelle: I say just do an outline because I do mine detailed. Isn't that how we roll?

Brittany: Annie, I adore you.

Time for a new blog post. But first, I need to decide what to post about.
I guess an overview of events since last Friday would be appropriate:

Saturday was a trip to Southall...main events:
- Michelle hit her head on the seat in front of here while trying to read a map
- Went to a Sikh Gurdwara
- Went to a Hindu Temple
- Ate Indian food at the gurdwara and at Gifto's restaurant
- Walked around Southall...bought some fabric that may one day become scarves

Me and Sarah at Gifto's

Sunday main events:
- The Primary kids did not try to kill each other! YAY!
- Fireside with Brother George Chittock - he talked about his memories of WWII in London.

Monday main event:
- Oliver! the musical with the entire group. I've been singing the songs all week...not sure if that is a good thing or not.

"FOOD, glorious FOOD! Hot sausage and MUSTARD!"
"Any mi-HILK today mi-hi-stress? Any mi-HILK?!?!"

Tuesday not-so-main events:
- Classsssssss. Four of them
- Went on an afternoon run in the rain. It was one of those times where the first and last five minutes of my run were clear, but the middle 20 minutes got me completely soaked. I loved it.
- Michelle and I went to finish one of our "London Walks" for one of our classes. It ended at a little mall of sorts, and I ended up convincing her to buy a fabulous pair of boots.
- Went with a group to Patisserie Valerie. I got something delicious that I can't remember the name of, but it was sure tasty just the same.
- Planned and planned more with Sarah and Michelle for our trip to Dublin next week!!

Wednesday day-trip:
- First stop = Kent. Attractions included the secret wartime tunnels, Dover Castle, and the White Cliffs of Dover.
- Second stop = Canterbury. This is especially significant since we have spent a good deal of time in British Literature reading and discussing the Canterbury Tales and Murder in the Cathedral. We toured the ruins at St. Augustine Abbey and then the Canterbury Cathedral.
- Watched Phantom of the Opera (I actually only watched half because I was sleepy)
- As I did last week, I think I will do a post with just pictures from the day trip.

This one is from the roof of the Castle, and you can also see the English Channel, perhaps even France on the other side.

Tooooooday's events:
- Ventured out to get tickets to Phantom of the Opera (to be seen on Monday!)
- Michelle and I took our first trip to Primark. I've heard that store described as Forever 21 on crack, and now I can say that is a pretty good description. Michelle and I got some cute/ugly (you be the judge) matching slippers, amongst a few other things. I'd say it was a successful trip.
- I've also been trying to catch up on homework, which is never an easy task.

One of my most favorite days here yet was Friday (aside from day trips, because there is really no comparison there). We had the whole day off, so a bunch of us took our time getting ready, put on skirts and dresses, and headed off to Kensington Palace to have tea and then take a tour of the Palace. To our excruciating disappointment, the tea house had been closed for two weeks, but opened the next day. If any situation called for a "bummer, dude", it was this one. I forgot to mention that in the time it took us to walk from the Center to Kensington Palace, the rain clouds had moved in and precipitation had commenced. Bummer dude.
Well, we weren't about to let a perfectly rainy afternoon go to waste, so we headed to Zizzi's Italian restaurant and ended up spending about three hours eating, talking, and mostly laughing. I got Risotto Verde, and shared a chocolate dessert with Anna.

sad faces when we found out the tea house was closed.

I know I've probably said it before, but I love the girls here. And I learn so much from them. Words of wisdom from Kira this week - if you're going to draw on the walls, be sure to write your sibling's name so that when your parent's see it, they won't think that you did it. Genius. Pure, genius.

Later on Friday night we went to a fabulous Starbucks on Regent Street to get a taste of home and do a little bit of studying. I got a vanilla soy steamer. Best one I've ever had, hands-down. Dear London, you have yet to disappoint me.

A Day or Two in Pictures

2010-01-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

As I stated in my previous post, Wednesday was our second day trip. We went to Brighton (the Royal Pavilion and the Pier/English Channel), Battle Abbey and the location of the Battle of Hastings, and Rye. The first two pictures are from outside of the Sloane Museum (Tuesday) and the last two are the London Eye, taken from the bus on our drive home.
As for today, there is a bit of a raised concern for terrorism, since Tony Blair is speaking at the Houses of Parliament about Iraq and all that jazz. We'll be staying in and around the Center...and off of the tube. Just in case.

OPAAAA!!

2010-01-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

So the thing that makes blogging difficult sometimes is the fact that I'm in London and everything could be a blogging topic/opportunity. Life is sooooo hard.
oh hold up, hold up.

Have you heard??

Blog-stalking is the new Facebook-stalking. Get with it, friends.

So to continue...
I've attempted to write a new post for about 3 days now and always get interrupted either by a trip to Gelatto Mio, or by the pressing need to do homework rather than blog. Hence, here I am...in the laundry room, hoping that I will be able to gather my thoughts and write something coherent for the few family members and friends who read my blog before the swooshing and wooshing of the washing machines stops and tells me to load the next batch of clothes. ok, BREATHE.

The past week has been full of all sorts of events, ranging in levels of interest, flavor, length of time, etc, etc, etc.

One of my favorites was last Friday night. We were all sitting around trying to think of something to do. Well, it was more a matter of DECIDING what to do. After all, we are in London, and there's a never-ending list of museums, musicals, and mayhem to engage in. After much discussion, we decided that this specific Friday night was "Roommate Night" and would be filled with a trip to H&M, Gelato Mio, and The Young Victoria (shopping, dessert, and a movie...we're girls, after all).
It was one of the funnest nights I've had here yet. We were literally laughing the entire night, except during Young Victoria, when we were sighing.

Saturday was a good day, too. I had mapped out a run that I wanted to go on - and so after sleeping in a little, Michelle and I put on our running shoes and headed down the stairs and out the door. Hyde Park is beautiful whatever the weather, but Saturday was a lovely day. Perhaps I got carried away in the scenery, because before I knew it we were on the busy streets of London, and I was completely turned around. Seriously?? I swear the grid system and mountainous landmarks in Utah have entirely spoiled my sense of direction. After maybe ten minutes I finally told Michelle that I didn't know where we were. Lucky for me, I'm best friends with someone who never seems to get turned around in London. We took the next turn or two, and found ourselves right back at Hyde Park.
Later that day, we went to Platform 9 3/4 and then watched Harry Potter 6, my favorite.

Monday night, I went to Les Miserables. Glorious. Once again, the experience was enhanced by beautiful English accents, incredible voices...oh, and chocolate.

Story time.
Well...history lesson first..
The City of London has been burned down twice.
A very short history lesson, but it has had quite the effect on London.
EVERYWHERE, there are fire extinguishers, fire escapes, etc. I mean, it makes sense.
Yes, well. At 2 AM Tuesday morning, the BYU London Center was awakened by a loud noise, commonly known as a fire alarm. We all crawled out of bed and walked down to the front entryway. Fun fact about me: I do not enjoy getting woken up during the night. I'm sure that I looked really angry, because I was, but I find it funny now. The source of the alarm? An old woman who lives on the other side of the center turned the oven on in her kitchen, closed the door, put a towel at the bottom of the door, and left it. After a few hours, the room had heated up enough to set the detector off. Does that make you a little uncomfortable? Me too.

Tuesday afternoon a few of us in the Civ 201 class went to the Sir John Soane house/museum. If you don't know what that is, look it up. Quite the household.

Yesterday was our second day trip. Destinations: Brighton, Battle Abbey/Hastings, and Rye. Perhaps that trip calls for another post.

Today. Today was a four-class day, and laundry day. Further plans include the Natural History Museum. (rumor has it that there is a photography exhibit...)

.Loving London.

2010-01-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

hi.

have you been to london?

you haven't?

well, you should come sometime soon, because it is pretty much fabulous.

thanks, bye.

So yeah, things are still cookin with gas here in the London Center.
Some of my favorite moments from the past week:
On Monday night, Michelle and I tried our luck at getting tickets to the sold-out John Mayer show. I have no clue how this concert slipped past us between all of the various concert searches that I have done over the past month or so. Oh well. We got there, and immediately hear "boy-oh-sewl tickehts!" from these big, burly men with crazy eyes and bad facial hair. Hmm. I'm surprised I wasn't more intimidated by them - but instead I walked right up to them one at a time and discovered that we'd have to wait a pretty long time for the prices to drop down to what we wanted to pay. (they started at 120 pounds each - about 200 US Dollars - and decreased to about 70 pounds before we decided we had seen enough of the outside of the theater) However, we DID get interviewed by some lady for some website...I'm not really sure what it was...
A good time was had by all. And I think by the end, the scalpers were even a little bit intimidated by me. Don't mess.

Tuesday was buuuuusssyyyy. Kitchen duty, 4 classes, British Museum (2+ hours of navigating London for 50 minutes of museum time), kitchen duty, crash. blaaahhhhh.

Wednesday was our first big day trip. Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathdral, and the city of Bath. Wonderful, wonderful day. I think all of those long car rides from Oregon to Utah and Canada have made me truly enjoy just driving and looking out the window. I almost got disappointed when we arrived at the various destinations and had to get off of the bus.
*BONUS*: I have this sort of random habit of always sitting on the left side of cars. I'd always call the left window in high school when driving places with friends (that is, if shotgun was taken). But NOW, the left side is like, the edge of the road, so I can see everything! It's wonderful. Lot's of beautiful countryside to look at. Loved it.
Another great thing from Wednesday was getting out from the city for a bit. As much as I love love love it here in the heart of London, I've noticed myself feeling a little bit cramped. It's something about not being able to see past the tall buildings only a few hundred yards away.
I think my favorite site from Wednesday was the Roman Baths. Hot, steamy, and awesome.
I've got a few pictures from the day below.
(if you want some more details from Wednesday, check out Michelle's blog..we do pretty much everything together)

These are my wonderful roommates (minus Leslie)

at the Roman Baths with the handy audio tour guide thing.

inside the assembly room in Bath.

Favorite moment from the beautiful today?
I think this video is pretty self-explanatory.

I've watched it about 10 times already and can't stop laughing.

Happy Sunday

2010-01-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

Two words: morning voice.
My morning voice has been horrendous over the past few days or so. I am convinced that I am not sick, but goodness gracious, I sound like a dying animal in the mornings. Until it fades away, I am trying to avoid speaking in the mornings...a difficult task when I live with 40+ other people.

But hey! Today was my first day at church in the Peckham Ward - where I'll be attending (along with Tori, Ali, and Shar) for the next few months. It's south of the Thames, about an hour of traveling each way (walking and the tube). Anyway. It was GREAT! Apparently I am now the resident pianist in the ward. I'll be playing in sacrament meeting and in primary. Oh my goodness, primary. The kids are so adorable. After primary was over, one of the girls came right up to me and said, "are you going to be here every week?" (all of this with an English accent) My heart melted. Her name is Onome. Pronounced kind of like Anna Mae. My new favorite person.
According to everyone else that I have talked to, church in the London area is fabulous all-around. The whole group is spread out into various wards in two different stakes.

In other news...
- I'm on kitchen crew this week. Not as bad as I thought it would be.
- Homework consists of reading, and lots of it. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of pages a week.
- I visited Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery on Wednesday, and saw a few of my all-time favorite paintings.
- I have eaten fish and chips a couple times - at a pub and at the center
- On Thursday, a group of us went to Piccadilly Circus (don't worry, we had tickets...joke) and wandered around for a bit and got ice cream. I made one of my first mental map connections when we wandered over to Leicester Square. I get pretty disoriented sometimes, coming up from the Tube in the middle of London.
- I attended a 2-hour faculty meeting (the joys of being the facilitator keep on rolling in)
- The group went to the Tower of London. Loved it.
- Borough Market food = yum (especially after walking around in the cold for several hours)
- Spent about 3 hours on Portabello Road yesterday, shopping and such in the pouring rain. It was just like home. I bought 3 pashminas for only 5 pounds. That's for you, Abby.
- Ordered Chicken Ladosh last night at Khan's.
- The snow is gone, and the rain is here. Thank goodness.

Diving Right In.

2010-01-13T02:19:00.000-08:00

So yeah, today. Way good. It started off with the first day of classes. I have Classical Civilization, Religion, International Politics, and British Literature. Yes, my friends, that was four and a half straight hours of class. Was it long? A little. Was it worth enduring? Absolutely.
Immediately after class, a group of us went out to Ben’s Cookies in High Kensington, and then wandered into H&M. Oh…and I got a dark chocolate ginger cookie. It was…interesting…maybe a little too adventurous, but delicious just the same.
Now, here comes one of those moments where it hits me that I’m actually in London. After H&M, a few girls suggested that we go to Big Ben, and after about 20 minutes on the tube, we emerged from the station immediately in front of Big Ben and the Thames. Uh, yeah - pretty awesome.
Quite possibly the highlight of today was going to see Wicked. I had never seen it before, so I was quite excited. We ended up going out with 20 people to get standby tickets (that’s more than half of the entire group). As we predicted, not too many people go to shows on Tuesday nights in the middle of January, so the seats were great, and better yet, cheap. Thank goodness for being a student. I now understand the love that so many people have for that musical. As I said to Michelle as we were leaving the theater, “that was the best 3 hours of my life!” Okay, perhaps that is an exaggeration, but still – those girls got mega pipes. I loved the accents, too.
Yes, well. That was today.
Among the past few days, I have had a couple of the “oh my goodness, I’m actually in London” moments. My favorite probably happened Monday morning, when Michelle and I went for a run in Hyde Park. I had a great song playing on my iPod, and it hit me…I was on a morning run in Hyde Park, THE Hyde Park. Perhaps that seems anticlimactic – oh well.
On Monday, we also had our first group outing to the Museum of London, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. St. Paul’s was simply wonderful. I’m surprised that I didn’t sprain my neck or something staring up at the ceilings for so long. I don’t think that I will ever be able to comprehend how architecture like that was constructed 300 years ago. Plenty of patience, I guess. And lots and lots of skills. Mega skills, like mega pipes.

Note: the wireless is completely bipolar here…mostly just polar, and on the pole that doesn’t function. I will post this when it decides to be on the functioning pole.

Aaaaaand PICTURES. I believe that they are in reverse chronological order.

Leicester Square on Saturday night. We finally broke down and took a picture with the phone booth.

London: Pilot Post

2010-01-09T02:22:00.001-08:00

Ok, no pictures yet. In fact, this is my first post that doesn't have a picture. BUT. I'm in London, and it is great! I'm surprised at how well my body has handled the time change and jet lag. Well done, self, well done.
Aside from unpacking and sitting by a heater in the library yesterday, I took a walk with a couple other girls around the nearby area. It was pretty busy out, so we just kind of looked around and tried to blend in as much as possible. I guess it worked, because a couple of ladies stopped us and asked us for directions.
Today started out well. Michelle and I went out and got breakfast at Cafe Diana, a small little place just around the corner from the center. To sum it up - wonderful orange juice, good food, and I tried my first fried tomato. A trip to the tube station to get our oyster cards summed up our morning outing (oh, and we got stopped for directions again), and the rest of the day looks promising, despite the cold weather and snow.
Pictures to come, as long as the internet connection will allow it.

A favorite place.

2009-12-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

About a week ago I went out to a park that has become one of my favorite places. It was a pretty foggy day, and it was really nice to just walk around and look and listen. I spent about ten minutes just staring at a blue heron perched out on the water. There's also a tree that I've taken pictures of before, so now it's like a tradition that I have with myself to go back and photograph it. Getting to it was a little difficult since the water level was pretty high. After an entanglement with a thorny vine and climbing over a few boulders, I came away from the experience with quite the scratch (more like a gash) on my lower calf. It was a good day.
Just to show how beautiful this place is, these pictures are unedited. I mean seriously, look at that moss. Stuff like that just doesn't happen in Utah.
Oh, and one more thing. I'm leaving for London in a little over a week, and leaving my Nikon at home. But I'm sure the next 4 months will be full of pictures of my adventures in Europe. Should be fun.

Boise Reception Details

2009-12-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

My sister got married a couple of weeks ago, and had a second reception the following week in Boise, Paul's (the groom) hometown. I took a few photos of some of the great details. Pie buffet...yum!

...and one of me and the bride :)

Roommates of 102

2009-10-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

It really must be fall. I went out the other day with this apartment of girls to take some pictures of them with the Fall colors before Fall goes away for good...rumor has it that we're supposed to get snow tomorrow. YIKES!

The Madison 5 Six

2009-10-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I went out with this wonderful apartment of ladies to do a roommate shoot. I often crash at their place on weekends, especially when there's an away football game (I have no TV at home). I guess this is my way of paying them back for taking up their couch space. Regardless, they are all gorgeous, and this was a really fun shoot!

Engagement: Paul and Abby

2009-08-31T14:47:00.000-07:00

The biggest recent news in my family is that my sister, Abby, is engaged! As a courtesy to a family member, she let me take a few engagements for her and her fiance, Paul. Despite my sarcasm, I hope they know that they are both very, very photogenic. Thanks guys!