Well I do miss my family but it’s back to the normal schedule. Today is Friday and we have our weekly field trip in London Town. Today we went to Westminster Abbey. (But this is the first time I have been able to actually go inside!) It was so wonderful to be able to go inside and go on an extensive phone tour and see the incredible beauty in this Abbey. I separated myself from the majority of the group and did the little phone tour by myself. It was more special that way, I think. At the end I sat on a bench and just stared at the beauty while I thought about my life. I feel so grateful for this summer. Everything about it is changing me and I feel so blessed. It is moments like these I want to always remember.

Tonight we had an adventure, however, with a little mouse we named tiny. It was the cutest, tiniest little creature I have ever seen! Unfortunately we met through a sticky mousetrap. It was 3 in the morning and Emily and I had been up late chatting, (like usual) when we heard little squeaks. We looked behind the dresser and found this little guy stuck on the trap. We knew we had mice, but we were not prepared for its cuteness. So what did we do? We got the trap, a plastic bag, went outside, pulled it off, and let it go. So funny. What girls we are. We couldn’t kill such an adorable animal. We thought it best not to tell our housekeeper. ;)

Today after class I met up with my fam bam on Oxford street. We ate sandwiches at a café and then I took them to the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster, National Gallery, and Trafalgar Square. Sight seeing will never get old to me. I love it so much. The world is an amazing place with so many places to explore.

Travel, travel, travel. It’s all I want to do. I didn’t have nearly enough time with my family as I had wanted but after a couple hours I had to make my way back to the London center. Our teachers got us tickets to see War Horse. Which I can’t complain it really was incredible. Life changing in fact. It is about a young boy who lies about his age and enters the army during WWII. So sad. One of my teachers, Professor Tate, knows Mackenna from BYU and he had an extra ticket so he told me to give it to her. I was so happy to have her come along with me. We both cried (mostly mackenna. The play really touched her because she has studied a lot about WWII. Love her) It was very sweet. After we met up with the rest of my family and had a painful goodbye on the front steps of the London center. It was a lot sadder than I had thought it would be. I will see them again soon but it was just so good to be with them for these past coupe of days. I love them so much and I am so thankful I have each one of them in my life. They means the world to me.

So many adventures in one day

Today was lovely! Besides the fact that I had to leave my family for the whole entire day, I did in fact have great adventures today. Our first stop was the Sandham Memorial Chapel where we saw the art work of Stanley Spencer which was inspired by his experiences in WWI. That was incredible. I feel so lucky to have been able to see and experience these historical sites in real life. Once in a life time experience.

Here are some of the paintings inside the memorial.

Amazing.

Then we went to Jane Austen’s home. Which was, of course, very fun for me. I love Jane Austen. Her home was adorable but I particularly loved her Garden. I am very partial to quaint Gardens. I hope to have one of my own someday. We all had a good time taking pictures and messing around. Poor Clark (The only boy on our study abroad) had to live through many fake engagement pictures. So silly. Sometimes I wish I were born in the 1800s. Life back then was much simpler. I often imagine what it would be like and when I read books written by Authors like Jane Austen I feel as though I can live a little bit of that life style through my imagination. Thank you Jane Austen for the wonderful Novels that you provided for the entertainment of millions.

My English class is all all about Jane Austen. We study her stories, characters, time period, and style of writing. It is so much fun! Our last assignment was to compare Elizabeth Bennett to Emma Woodhouse. We have to go through the book and find specific examples to prove how they are similar or how they are different depending on which side we were assigned too. It really is quite delightful and makes for a fun homework adventure. What better homework could you have than to read books like Emma and Persuasion. The class is not easy by any means. Finding concrete evidence for some of the assignments take so much time... I mean think about it. We have to have actual passages that can prove our point so we have to pretty much go through each book every assignment page by page. It's time consuming but entertaining none the less. We had to make a Jane Austen blog for our class where we would match quotes from the book to pictures we have taken on this trip. That was a fun project as well.

Here are a couple posts from my Jane Austen Blog:

"It did not appear to her that life could supply any greater felicity" -Northanger Abbey

"But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them..." :) -Pride and Prejudice

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not in my nature.' -Northanger Abbey

"... for a fine Sunday in Bath empties evert house of its inhabitants, and all the world appears on such an occasion to walk about and tell their acquaintance what a charming day it is."

Anyways....back to business...

Our next stop was the Salisbury Cathedral.

Oh first, I should warn you that I have an obsession with doors. Is that weird? Maybe.

Here are a few of my favorite from today.

And here are some pictures of this gorgeous cathedral:

Next Stop: Stone Hedge!! Oh yes, all of us girls were excited to see this. I saw Stone Hedge when I was younger but it had been so long so of course it was like seeing it for the first time. We were all in such a happy mood so we ran around in the grass and wind and took lots of fun, silly pictures. This place is amazing. Historians still don’t know for sure what it really is but each rock weighs several tons. What? How did they get them there? Beats me. Some think that they put it together for religious purposes. Whatever the reason, it is a wonderful little piece of History that we all get to enjoy today.

I really love the girls on my study abroad. We have such a good time together. Adventures like these are always more fun when in the company of good friends.

L to R: Whitney Robinson, Amanda Allred, Emily Roberts, and I

I got home just in time to catch a tube and RUN and I mean RUN through the streets of London to meet up with my family at the Broadway show, Legally Blonde. I got there just in time. It was hilarious. I wouldn’t recommend it as the top show I have seen but it was funny for sure. AND if you are going to London and can only see one or two shows, don’t see this one. There are plenty that are better, with more inspiring stories and music like Les Mis and Lion King (Personal favorites). But nonetheless we had a blast and laughed hard. Very entertaining. So glad my family is here with me! Nothing could make me happier.

FAMILY!!!

Yes. I cried when I saw them. I’m such a baby sometimes. I was so excited I couldn’t pay attention in any of my classes today and it was hard because I don’t have a cell phone here so I couldn’t just call them and see when they were coming. So I just waited and waited by the door. Haha. I was like a little child. My family finally arrived and we all embraced one another. I thought I could hold it together until when I got to my mom she was sobbing so I lost it. I love her so much! I get my crying when happy curse from her. We had so much fun just laughing, hugging and catching up. We then headed to Oxford Street where we did some shopping and then went to some museums. Surprise we got separated in the Victoria and Albert Museum and we never did end up finding each other so thankfully we had set up the London center as a meeting place in case we did get split up so eventually Cailey, Cami, Caitlyn (Cami’s friend that came with them), and I met up with mom and Kenna at my home. By then it was getting pretty late and we had tickets to go see Love Never Dies! We ran to the tube and barely made it to the show on time. Love never dies is the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. It is brand new and it was amazing. Well the story was kind of strange…. But so is the original phantom. The music is amazing though. Absolutely breathe taking. This play takes place in Coney Island so you can imagine how eerie it was with the circus atmosphere. But I quite enjoyed it. And being with my family made it better. Thank you Broadway and thank you Andrew Lloyd Webber for the amazing night.