Who's the worst blogger ever?? Oh yeah, that's me! Sorry guys. I haven't updated forever. Life has been so crazy here. Since the last time I updated I have traveled to many wonderful places and seen many amazing things. First on the list is Belgium. Belgium is the home of chocolate, waffles, and fries (I always assumed fries were a French thing but apparently they originated in Belgium). I must say that all of these items tasted ten times better in Belgium than they do at home and it was not all in my head. Those Belgians really know how to make food :) While in Belgium I visited a chocolate museum and learned how chocolate was made. My favorite thing about Belgium is that any time you entered a candy store they gave you a sample of chocolate. Belgium is like heaven on earth.
While in Belgium I also saw Flander's Fields in Ypres. This is where one of the first major battles in World War I took place. The entire town was destroyed during the war. Next we traveled to France and saw the fields where the Battle of Somme took place during World War I. We were able to walk through some of the original trenches the Allies used during the battle. It was a very cool and humbling experience.
My Mom came out to London and we had a great time together visiting various sites around the city. Among my favorites were; Tower of London, The Globe Theater, Tower Bridge, Churchill War Rooms, and the Royal Mews. I've also been to see many shows including; Billy Elliot, Children's Hour (staring Kierra Knightly), Jersey Boys, and my personal favorite Legally Blonde: the Musical. I got to see the England National Team play soccer against Ghana which was really cool. All in all it has been a busy but great few weeks.
Up next? On Wednesday I get on a plane to Rome. From there I go to Verona, Venice, Athens, Santorini, Crete, and back to London to catch my plane home. It will be a busy but exciting couple of weeks.

Hey guys-
A lot has happened since the last time I posted (I feel like I say that a lot... maybe I should post more)
I got to go to Wales last week. It was really fun! We spent the night in Cardiff. It was cool to get to be in such a big city. We went to a mine called the big pit and I spent an hour underground touring it. It was much more wet and dark then I ever could have imagined. It makes me feel ten times more awful about what happened to those miners in Chile last year.
We also got to go to a living history town. It had people dressed up and teaching you about different occupations such as being a blacksmith or jeweler. It was really interesting and I got to see tons of animals. Pigs, chickens, turkeys, cows, and ducks were all present in the park.
After spending a couple of days home recuperating we took off for Ireland. We left at 3 o'clock in the morning in order to get to the airport on time and that pretty much explains how our trip went. Rush from one thing to the next. I got to see some amazing sites such as; The Guinness Brewery where we learned how they make beer, a prison from the 1900s, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Speaking of St. Patrick, we were in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day which was quite the celebration.
To celebrate St. Patrick's Day there was dancing in the streets (literally, we had Irish dancing lessons) and a big carnival and the weirdest parade I have ever experienced in my life. They had super weird people dressed up as like crazy things. It's so hard to describe. Like for example, these one people were dressed up as cats but their necks were like four feet long and just up there. There was one guy dressed up as Dracula. What that has to do with St. Patrick's Day is beyond me. They had super weird floats too. One was like a skeleton in a coffin and one looked like a mutated dog. It was so bizarre but cool to see how the Irish did parades.
We also spent a lot of time with drunks (an old Irish St. Patrick's Day tradition.... drink A LOT!!!) In one bar there was live music and it was super fun. Have you ever seen the movie P.S. I Love You? Some of the girls here are obsessed with it and they sung the song Gallaway Girl from that movie and the girls I was with started freaking out. My favorite part of the night was this midget dressed up as a leprechaun handing out chocolate coins. Really random but I got lots of chocolate because we were there for a while waiting to get a table.
It was also an amusing pastime for some people in our group to watch the drunken brawls from outside the window of our hostel. There were these people that totally got into fights and start beating each other up. There were also crazy love triangles and people trying not to throw up. It was like watching a bad reality TV show. You know you shouldn't get enjoyment out of it but you just can't help but watch.
We got to spend one day in a little town called Kilkenny where we got to see the Irish countryside. It is so beautiful in Ireland. Everything here is so green. It's hard to believe that the countryside is just as beautiful as it seems in movies, but it definitely is. I also found out that Trinity College in Dublin has a really good preservation program, so come graduate school, who knows? Maybe I'll be making my way to Ireland.

Hey guys!! I hope all is going well in Provo (other than Brandon Davies getting kicked off the team thus ruining BYU's chances of getting very far in March Madness. FYI the controversy was big enough that you could read about it in the newspaper over here too.)
Sorry I haven't done my blog for so long. I am doing so much all of the time it's hard to remember to update my blog too. I went to Paris last week. It was amazing!!! I loved being able to see iconic sites such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre (where I saw my FAVORITE statue in the whole wide world, Winged Victory) and the Arc de Triumph. I was able to go on a river cruise that took us to many different sites and I also went to Notre Dame Cathedral. For those of you who know me well, you know that my detailed description of my trip would not be complete without a list of all of the amazingly scrumptious food items I devoured while on this trip.
I think food is better in Paris than anywhere else in the world. While in Paris I ate Crepes, which were good but not nearly as good as the food that I bought from bakeries along the way. I ate tons of baguettes which are better there than anywhere else in the world. I also ate way too many croissants and pan chocolate. I finished off all of my meals with pastries, which the French do better than anyone else in the world.
After getting back to London I was shocked and pleased to find that spring is in the air in England. I spent my weekend walking through many of the various parks around the city seeing all of the pretty flowers which are just coming up and all of the trees which are blooming. Growing up in Utah, it's incredible for me to believe that it can be the beginning of March and there can be trees in bloom on a beautiful spring day.
Although that is an abbreviated version of what has happened since my last post (I also went to see Phantom of the Opera which is AMAZING and went to find the Travel Bookshop, which I am ashamed to say sells books other than travel books *Notting Hill reference in case anyone did not understand, I also put my hand in the Thames for the first time) I think I am now caught up on all of my exciting news for the time being. On tap for this week?? Visiting a mosque, going to my first ever opera, and a trip to Wales. I'll write back sooner this time than I did the last time. Keep reading to here about my further travel plans for this month which include; Wales, Ireland, France(again, but not Paris this time) and Belgium. Also: Stratford upon Avon.

Sorry guys. I am really bad about updating my blog... and uploading pictures. I'll get around to it sometime, I promise. Last week I went to Dreamboats and Petticoats. It was a musical based entirely around music from the sixties. Think Hairspray but without original music. It was really cute and I liked it a lot.
I got to go to Camden market last weekend. Camden is this huge outdoor market with tons of cool shops and SO much food. They had the best chocolate covered strawberries I have ever had. Plus they put on hazelnuts for free. England puts hazelnuts with everything!
On Monday I went to see Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband". It was so funny. Although the beginning was kind of slow, it ended up being a very humorous show and I was very glad to see it.
Today I went to Oxford and fell in love. Not with a British guy, unfortunately. I fell in love with the school.. It was so amazing. The architecture is exquisite. I felt smarter just walking on the campus. The people there are so nice and the campus is the best thing I have ever seen. Maybe for graduate school...

It's been a crazy couple of days. On Monday night I went to the Swan Lake Ballet. It was so much fun. I didn't know how I would feel about going to a ballet, but I loved it! Yesterday I went to Southall. It is the Indian section of London. I got to go to a temple which was really cool. We had to take off our shoes and cover our heads. We went and sat on the floor and listened to music. It was a new experience, but a very exciting one!
This morning we went to the London temple. We were able to do baptisms for the dead while we were there. It was a really neat experience to get away from the city for a few hours and be at the temple. Although the temple is an hour and a half drive from our house, it was totally worth the travel time.

Man, I can't believe it has been that long since the last time I posted on my blog. Sorry to anyone who has actually been reading about my adventures in London. I will try to post more regularly. More pictures are to come, but not right now because the internet is being really slow. Many things are better in Europe, the internet is NOT one of them.
Last week I was able to take a trip to Scotland. It was absolutely amazing. I tried haggis (not so good), saw men in kilts, but did not hear anyone playing the bagpipes. Oh well, at least I got to out of three on the stereotypical list of things to do in Scotland. I climbed King Arthur's seat and it was amazing!! It was this really tall mountain (by European standards) and from the top we could see everything. What I loved most about Scotland was that it was a mixture of every type of beautiful thing that you can imagine. From the top of the mountain I could see; fields, rivers, lakes, forests, and the entire city of Edinburgh. It was amazing to see such a mix, with castles and modern buildings everywhere you turned.
While on my trip to Scotland I saw such highlights as; The Elephant House (the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book), 2 castles, the Scottish Parliament building,and the William Wallace Monument.
I also ate the most incredible dessert I have ever had in my entire life. It was called a brownie sundae sandwich and it was a layer of brownie, a layer of ice cream, and another layer of brownie. On the side they gave you a cup of chocolate soup. They only way to describe chocolate soup is a warm, melted, liquefied bar of Belgium chocolate. By far the best thing that I have eaten since coming to Europe. Yum!!!
I stayed at my first hostel. It was not as bad as I was expecting it to be, but then again, I knew all 8 of the girls that were in my room. Had they been random strangers, they probably would have been a little too close for comfort. One of the hostels that we stayed at had a beautiful view of a cemetery.
I am now back in London and will be going to see the Swan Lake ballet tonight. Happy Valentine's Day to me!!! I need to go do homework, but Happy Valentine's Day. I love you all!

On Saturday I went to the houses of Parliament. It was really cool to see everything and learn about all of the ceremonies. They have so many random ceremonies here that are older than America. It's really cool but insane. After the tour we ran into the protest you see above. The students are very unhappy that their tuition is being raised and this is the second protest they've had since I got here.

The promised pictures. This is punting at Cambridge. You pretty much go out in this flat bottomed boat and get pushed by this guy with a long stick. I learned lots of useless information from my tour guide as seen above. I can now tell you many of the stupid laws that England has enforced over the years such as; during a certain period windows could only be a certain size, and there could only be two clock towers in a one hundred foot radius of each other during a certain point in time. This guy also new how many people in America get injured falling off of a tramp every year or die due to swallowing pennies. Overall, punting was an interesting experience that I would definitely repeat.

This week has been great I went to Les Mis and had afternoon tea at Kensington Palace, complete with an English Scone, finger sandwiches, and miniature desserts. I also went on a nine mile walk through the countryside. I felt like I was in a Jane Austen novel. I went to the National Gallery which was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. So many amazing artists all in one place. Museums are definitely one of the coolest parts of being in London.

This week I had tons of fun. I made my pilgrimage to Canterbury and saw Thomas Becket's grave. I saw the white cliffs of Dover and put my feet in the water at the English Channel. I punted at Cambridge. I went to a musical (Love Story) and a Hitchcock play (39 Steps). I also got to see the Book of the Dead exhibit at the British Museum. It was all really amazing. Pictures are to come.

Liverpool

While in Liverpool I enjoyed learning more about the Beatles(and getting my picture taken with the yellow submarine), looking out over the ocean, and seeing the view up high from the swinging chairs of doom (my name for them, not what they are actually called)

Preston

I got to see the church history sites in Preston, which was really interesting. I stood in the square where Gordon B. Hinkley preached on his mission. I saw the site where the early English saints were baptized, and I ended my day with a sunset at the Preston temple.

York

We got into York at 5 o'clock at night and as you can see it was gorgeous. I ate dinner at my first pub of the trip, which was pretty exciting. The following day we were able to walk the wall built by the Romans when they ruled England and we also went to York Minster Cathedral.

Fountain's Abbey

This abbey was built in the 12th century. It is just ruins now and is absolutely amazing. I able to spend an hour and a half there, but I could have stayed longer because it is so beautiful. Definitely one of the coolest things I have seen on this trip.

I took a walk by the water a few days ago. Some of the most gorgeous views of London.

Wicked!!!

Sorry guys, I haven't written forever. This week has been crazy. This week I went to Wicked, which was absolutely amazing. The cast was very eclectic. The two stars were British, but there was also an Irish actor and an American actor. They were all fabulous and it was an excellent performance. I also got to cross Tower Bridge, and went on my first trip this week. We went to York, Preston, and Liverpool. Highlights included seeing a VERY old abbey, going to the Beatles museum, riding a ride on top of a super high building, and going to an amazing buffet. Pictures of all of this and more will be up in the next couple of days, so check back soon. Love you all!

Random pictures.

My favorite homework ever! I got assigned by 3 different classes this week to go to the British Museum.

Roman bath house in Bath.

More Stonehenge

Stonehenge. Did you know these stones weigh about 4 tons each and came from Whales?

I am ever constantly eating delicious food in London. The first picture is of my friends Lyse and Heather when we were eating some crepes for lunch. The second picture is of some other friends as we ate dessert at the same place that night:)

The changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.

Big Ben

Jaynann, Devon, and I ordered nuggets from the children's menu. We figured they'd be chicken nuggets, but after we bit into them we were unable to decide what type of meat was used in the making of those nuggets. It was gray and an unidentifiable texture. Any guesses?

Tower of London.

Platform nine and 3/4

Hey guys!
I've been really busy lately. Classes started. They seem like they'll be good, although they are taking up a lot of my time. I got to see Stonehenge today. I also went to see Salisbury Cathedral and visited the Roman Baths in Bath. I got to see assembly rooms that are from Jane Austen's time. That was really cool. I could see myself dancing with Mr. Darcy. I have more classes tomorrow and then it's the weekend! I don't have any set plans yet, but I'll be sure to keep you all posted and upload some pictures soon.

Sorry guys the internet is slow at McDonald's and we're not allowed to upload pictures from the Centre. I promise I'll upload more sometime, but I'm not entirely sure when I'll get to it. It might be next week before I do. I'll keep writing on my blog. I'll keep you guys updated. We start classes today, but seeing as I'm not taking any English classes, I don't start until tomorrow. One more day to roam London doing anything that I want!

My Room at the London Centre. Only 8 girls and by far the smallest room. I have two showers for the 8 of us.

I went to church in my new ward today. It took us about an hour to get there. Crazy adjustment for someone who has never spent more than 3 minutes traveling to church. My ward is great. I got called as Sunday School teacher for the 4-7 year olds. There's about 6 of them. Wish me luck! I'm at McDonald's so I get to upload pictures tonight, because I can't upload them from the center. I'm very excited about being able to post my excellent pictures and show you all what I've been doing.

London is amazing. I love the city so much. It's so beautiful and so historic. I expected it to be like New York, but it is so much older and prettier. I've been to the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and Piccadilly Circus. I see my first play tomorrow, which will be really fun.
The dessert here is amazing! I've had gelato, waffles with Belgian chocolate, digestive biscuits (super good graham cracker like cookies covered in chocolate for those who don't know) and candy bars. I'm going to gain weight if I'm not careful, although considering I feel like I've walked about fifteen miles today, maybe I won't gain too much weight.
I'm super tired so I'm going to sign off, but I'll be sure to upload pictures soon!

Got Here Safe

Hey guys,
I'm in London!!! I've been here for a few hours. It's going pretty good so far. They won't let me sleep and I only slept for like an hour and a half on the plane, so I'm pretty upset about life in general, but I'll live. They say this helps you get over jet lag better... I don't know if I believe them. It was a long plane ride, but I'm glad I'm safe and in London.
I'll write again after I've slept and am in a better mood!
Love you all!