.Pure Beauty.

Well another beautiful day has gone by and I only wish I could convey what I experienced today into words eloquently enough to give it justice. Bear with me as I try to explain the many events of the day.

Today we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. One Word: Miraculous. As I walked up to the cathedral my mind went wild. How do people build such a huge building? Who was the architect? How long did it take to build this? When was it built? How do people come up with plans for such a building? How does someone sculpt such astounding sculptures? There is so much detail! This is a massive cathedral! Look how big those doors are!..... I stared in amazement for a while and then realized I needed to catch up with my picture taking. As I walked inside my mind did not calm down. In fact it only got worse. I had a hard time paying attention to anyone around me. We were able to look around for a while and then we started our tour. We went everywhere in the cathedral and learned about absolutely everything. Every sculpture, painting, detail, flags, altars, stained glass windows, the astonishing mosaics, the list goes on… We even got to go down to the crypt where we saw the graves of many historical men. Including John Donne and the Duke of Wellington. After the tour, we started the long journey up the 500 steps to the top of the dome. I made it to the top, despite my knees complaining, and once again my breath was taken away. The view is practically better than the one you can see by going on the London eye! It is beautiful! You can see for miles off into the distance. Don’t tell, but I added my name to the many, many names on one of the walls. Is that really bad? I felt horrible for doing it. I try to justify it by reminding myself that I wrote it really small and it won’t make a difference since there were so many others. I’m sure I was wrong for doing it but I guess there is nothing to be done now.

Next we went to the Museum of London. I don’t think I had ever been there before so it was quite interesting. We were there for a couple hours and we were all pretty tired by the end. I think I would like to go back there another time when I am not already…. pooped out—for lack of a better term. But we did have fun looking at the clothing styles of different time periods.

So a couple of girls and I did something pretty courageous after this. We went to Primark. I know, I know, you are wondering why on earth would you choose to go to the most chaotic, biggest, most crowded store in London? Well because it’s amazing, that’s why! It is huge, most everything is cute, and it is all SO cheap! It is a treat. Except the chaotic-ness of it does bring it down a notch on my marvelous meter. We only had a little while before dinner so we did not stay long. I didn’t get to look through more than half the store so I will definitely be taking a trip back there some time. It is just one of the many treasures of London. ;)

It did not appear to her that life could supply any greater felicity.

Ok I was just kidding. I am going to be writing everyday. Well hopefully. Too much happens everyday that I have too in order to keep up with my life.

Boy oh boy do I have a lot to say! First lets start out with Monday, our first day of class! All I can say about my classes here is holy cow! There are going to be some rough moments! Haha. After the first day we had so much homework I didn’t know what to do! I mean it’s doable of course, but I would just have to coop myself up in the centre and never leave. Which of course, I chose to go out and play and leave my homework for another day. :) Come on, I’m in London! I’m not going stay inside and study all day! But I felt the effects the next day of course when my load became even worse. So I learned my lesson. Studies come first. (most of the time) Oh well. I shall manage.

After classes on Monday I went to lunch to a place called Giraffes with a bunch of girls. It was a very fun and delicious place! We shopped a bit after and then went to the National Portrait Gallery to do some of our assignments. We had to observe the sketch of Jane Austen, compare it to another and write a paper on our thoughts on it. Monday night we had a fireside by a man from London who lived through the Blitz. His story was amazing and inspiring! It was very interesting and I learned a lot from him and his first hand account of life in that time.

Tuesday, (today) was a little better school-wise. We were all more familiar with what was going on and we could really start getting settled into our classes. The first day is always syllabus related and such. Some girls and I explored the streets for a few hours after lunch. I made quite a few wonderful discoveries that will be quite useful to me while I am here such as the shopping center right around the corner, the big grocery store, the school supply store, the post office, a gelato stand, wonderful little food and trinket stores, and much more. I walked and walked until I knew I had procrastinated enough and should head home to start on the pile of homework.

Trafalgar Square

S.U.N.D.A.Y.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a good fortune,... must be in need of adventure.

Well I am sure getting it! Sundays are wonderful! :) Sundays are relaxing and spiritual. Today we went on a lovely walk through Hyde Park to get to the church building. We attended the Hyde Park ward, which was delightful. Church was uplifting as always. It is fun to hear the British accents. It amazes me how diverse London is. There are so many different ethnicities here. It seems that British people are a minority here. The speakers at church were from all over the place! Africa, America, New Zealand, and India... the list goes on.

In Sunday school the speaker spoke to us about being the best at whatever we choose to be in life. I’m not positive where I’m going yet, but what he said really inspired me. Whatever it is I end up doing, I want to be able to say that I did my very best at getting there and that I continue to do my best each day. No regrets. I don’t ever want to look back and wish I had worked harder at something. But on the other hand, I know I may sometimes may judge myself too harshly and think how I didn’t do good enough even though I truly did try my hardest. That is something to also think about and work on.

The rest of the evening was grand. A man came and spoke to us about the history of the Mormon missionaries in England. It was inspiring and wonderful to hear about the wonderful men who sacrificed to spread the gospel to and through the British Isles. He was a convert himself and his stories were fantastic.

Ok Last but not least I have wonderful news! After the fireside a couple of girls and I got on a bus and headed over to Hyde Park. Why? because we heard rumors that there was a paul MaCartney concert going on. Granted the tickets were pricey and it was a Sunday so we had not purchased any but we got to the park and the concert was sure enough still going on! So we could hear it from outside the big walls that had been put up in the park. But we got lucky... They opened up the gates so people could start leaving and for the last 5 songs we could see the stage and see mr McCartney himself singing his little heart out! It was amazing!!! I never imagined I would be able to hear him live! Definitely something to remember. Maybe its just because I love the beatles so much, but I was ecstatic for the rest of the night.

You can never walk too much when you are exploring a new place

So no I will not be writing a blog post everyday but since today was so eventful I figured I must. Plus I start school on Monday so I probably won't have as much time. Well it is now time to get ready for bed and boy am I exhausted! I'm not sure if I have ever walked so much in my life. And I have done quite a bit of walking in my time. ;) Today we got up and had a meeting with our professors and directors. They gave us instructions of places they wanted us to go today and how to go buy a tube and bus pass. So off we went every girl excited and delighted about our assignment for the morning.

First stop: Buckingham Palace! We watched the changing of the guards and took some pictures. It was miserably hot but considering where we were, it didn't matter. But it got me thinking. The guards stand there in long pants, long jackets, a huge fur hat, while holding a gun. How do they not overheat and die? Ok death might be a little dramatic but seriously? I was dying in that kind of heat and I had a skirt on! I felt sympathy for the poor men. If I were to be a guard at Buckingham palace for a day, I think I would have a most fun time making faces at people walking by. Not moving my body of course, (since they never ever do unless they are marching) but just moving my face around to entertain the passerbys.

I made a friend today. He works at a little Breakfast and lunch place called Peggys I think. He was quite the jokester and he entertained us all while we got some lunch. He even filled up my water bottle for me. I am forever indebted to him.

We continued our journey and went to Trafalgar Square where we spent the next lovely hour in the National Gallery of Art. I enjoyed it even more than normally because this time I was able to see some paintings I had actually studied in school and knew things about. We played around in Trafalgar square and took pictures with the Huge Lion Statues. Sometimes I am such a tourist. Ok thats an understatement. I am always such a tourist. But I'm ok with that.

Next stop: The Borough Market. Now this was fun! So much food! I wasn't hungry so I only sampled but it was fun walking around and looking at everything. I saw some very interesting things that I guess people actually eat?

We spent the rest of the day walking around the town. My knee is having a hard time. I probably worked it a little too hard considering the fact that I walked around the town from 9:30 am until 9:30 pm. Yeah, I wasn't exaggerating when I said I had walked quite far today! But I have made great discoveries such as good places to buy cheap tickets, yummy food, good stores, cute streets, useless streets, useless bus stops, the right bus stops, and I finally can find my way using the tube. I am becoming quite pro as a matter of fact. So that about raps up my day. I could go into grave detail and tell you every little thing we did such as where I walked all day, but it would take too long and if I am quite honest, I didn't know where I was half the time. At least I didn't know what the street names were. But it's ok because neither did any of the other girls. I just enjoyed walking, looking, and learning. I have 2 months to figure out the rest. I can't wait until I know London like the back of my hand. And yes, I plan too.

Oh and last thing... I can't wait until my knee is better and so can go running through Hyde park and all the other parks for that matter. So when that time comes, expect a blog post about it. I am sure I will have something to say.

p.s. Picture come later when I receive my camera cord I left at home. oops. :)

Finally Here

Well, after many restless hours on an airplane, I am finally here. Hello London, nice to see you again! The plane rides were fine. I read Northanger Abbey most of the way and was thoroughly entertained. Maybe I enjoyed it because I connect with the main character, Catherine’s personality so much. Or maybe I just like the way Jane Austen portrays a young girl and her excitement over her crush so well. It could also be the fact that a lot of the story is set in Bath and London is discussed many times. So I think I felt more connected to the book seeing as I would soon be there as well. But I probably loved it so much just because it betrays such real life situations. Everything in it is realistic and I feel as though I have been through similar circumstances. Anyway, all in all everything worked out good. All of the walking and bending my knee in the airplane was a bit tough on my knee, but I’m alive! :) I have unpacked and met some of the girls and they all seem great. I just got back from a little walk around the streets where I will be living. I bought some groceries for the weekend and people watched as I limped down the street eating my apple. I am perfectly happy.

Pain please go away.

Great. Leave it to me to go and get hurt. I must say excellent timing self! Less than a week before I head to London and I cut my knee open. haha. So here is the story... at my little sister's birthday party we had a wonderful and fun paint fight. After we headed over to the huge slip n' slide to wash off. As I started the difficult task of washing the paint off I decided to slide forward on my knees to get to the next big puddle. Now this little slide forward was of no small consequence. This slide gave my right knee 2 huge gashes. I slid over a broken sprinkler and it definitely had fun tearing up my knee. Against my will, my mom made me go to the med clinic and sure enough they stitched up the 2 gashes with 11 stitches and many, many numbing shots. Not pleasant at all. I am now on crutches and wearing a knee brace that goes from my ankle to my mid-thigh. I look great! haha. What a bummer. I am in some serious pain. Who would have thought it would hurt this much? I am supposed to wear my brace until Saturday but I leave for London on Thursday so I think I am just going to be rebellious and take off the brace before I leave on Thursday. I don't want to hobble around the airport. Oh how I hope this knee injury heals fast so I can dance around London soon.

My heart belongs to Europe.

It's true. I'm inlove with Europe. Would you consider it a bad thing if you are addicted to a continent? It may not be as bad as some other addictions the world today provides you with, but when it comes to the point that you crave it so much that you HAVE to go... I guess that's probably not too healthy. Well that’s the point I'm at. I need to go back. I love to travel and even though I have already been to many places around Europe and the British Isles I still always feel like I'm seeing the places again for the first time. It always astounds me to learn about different countries and cultures. Well considering this addiction of mine, I guess it's a very good thing I'm flying to London in a week and a half. :) I am fulfilling one of my lifetime goals. Study Abroad. I have planned for it my whole life and the opportunity to go this summer fell right into my hands. I feel so thankful for this amazing experience I am about to have. I have been home from BYU now for a couple months and as much as I love being home I am ready to start my adventures abroad. So dear heart, soon your aching for travel and adventure will no longer be. And to you beautiful London, I have missed you and I will be there soon.