Chris Curtis: The best punter I've ever been punted by.

If I didn’t love BYU so much, I’d be considering an immediate transfer to Cambridge University. Honestly.. one of my favorite days thus far!

We got to the campus at eleven and were released until five to do as we wished. The weather was exactly what it normally is – beyond freezing – but I had so much fun, I didn’t even care! The way Cambridge University is set up, there are tons of different colleges inside of it that you must separately apply to. I compared it to the way BYU has different schools.. like the school of business and music programs. So we went around looking at the different colleges first. They each have entirely separate churches and types of buildings and it’s all right along the beautiful River Cam.

As we kept walking it kinda turned into a little college town with shops and markets and tons of fun stuff! We went into a fun fudge shop for free samples, got lunch at a cute little restaurant (and I got 2 fried eggs on toast – SO GOOD! I’ve been long overdo for some nice eggs!! Mmmm..) with an extremely babe-alicious waiter, and then all bought some Cambridge clothing of some sort. There was a hilarious guy at the fudge shop who was making strawberry fudge right there in front of us, so we stayed in there forever laughing at him. The best part of the day however was the punting!

I had no idea what punting was until today, but it was quite possibly the best 8 pounds I’ve spent. For those of you as ignorant as myself, it’s basically a boat ride/gondolier ride around the river that runs through the campus. There were 10 of us that did it together and at first we were super nervous because it was so STINKING COLD outside we weren’t sure we’d even enjoy it. But guess what?!? They provided beautiful red blankets free of charge. Score. Elise, Me, Liz, and Carly sat in the very front (furthest away from the punter dude – which is important for the success of our trip) and had a perfect view of the river. Now our punters name was Chris and quite frankly… I think a 3 year old girl could’ve pushed us faster and in a straighter line. We were more like drifting than being pushed. Sometimes I had to turn around to see if he was actually pushing us with a stick. Haha so we kept hitting the wall and it took us probably 3 times longer than normal!

The four of us up front were laughing and joking the entire time and had a blast taking pictures of each other and everything though, so we didn’t mind the increase in time. The scenery was beautiful.. as you’ll see from my pictures.. and I was eventually glad that Chris was as bad as he was. It provided some good entertainment.

Other than that… Carly was bitten by a savage duck, Elise made her first joke, and we all bonded as we kept each other warm. Poor Chris had been rowing all day and I’m sure his arms were killing him… so we forgave him in the end and got a picture with him! Truth be told... he was the best punter I’ve ever been punted by. 

 

 I forgot to mention this! We stopped at the only American War Memorial in Britain and it was So amazing. I didn't realize how much I missed America until I saw the American flag waving. I had so much pride for my country!

 The beautiful River Cam. Just before we embarked on our epic journey with Chris the horrible punter.  

 Elise, Me, Liz, and Carly on the back of the boat getting ready for our trip!

 Like I said - We had the perfect view of the river from where we were sitting!

 I had to include a group picture with Chris. Don't let him fool you, he has no idea how to use that stick. 

 Cold weather changes people. 

 Chris Curtis: The best punter I've ever been punted by. 

Goodbye Cambridge! I'll miss you!

Pretty Pretty Please with a Castle on Top.

2 hour bus ride to a castle that’s closed? Count me in. Yesterday was our trip to Canterbury and Dover and basically everything went wrong. But it was still a blast… Cause we’re in Europe for pete’s sake!

We left our lovely London Center at 8 in the morn and headed to Dover. The next two hours consisted of a bus ride/movie about an archbishop dude who betrayed his best friend King Henry II when he decided that he actually believed in God and wasn’t going to serve him. Then he was brutally murdered in the Cantersbury Cathedral. ANYWAY! We got to Dover and walked up to this wickedly sweet looking castle. Only guess what? Closed. Somehow our scheduler person got the day wrong. So we took some pictures from afar and went to the beach instead. It was honestly pretty funny.. plus I got to take pictures on the beach of the English Channel. Oh and I grabbed a pretty sweet rock as a souvenir. The “white cliffs of Dover” weren’t what I was expecting, but I think that’s because we were in the city and not out in the middle of nowhere like you always see on the postcards. They were still sweet though. And the castle we almost went into was situated perfectly on the cliffs, so that made for a picturesque view.

The castle thing threw the rest of our day off, so they let us roam free in Canterbury for three hours while we waited for our Cathedral Tour to start. What did we do? Shopped. I’ve never really loved shopping until I came here. I mean, I liked it for sure, but something about being in Europe makes it SOOO much more enjoyable. Our tour of the Cathedral was pretty dang awesome though. I just love learning about things in our History class and then applying them straight to what you’re seeing. Like the dude that got murdered. “Today we are going to learn about Thomas Becket. He was an archbishop…etc. etc who was brutally murdered.” “Tomorrow we are going to drive to the place he was brutally murdered and stand on his grave.” Hmm.. If THAT doesn’t make history like 100 times cooler, you’re crazy.

Perhaps one of my favorite things that happened at the cathedral was when I snuck up on the organist!! The huge organ is in the main room and it was playing, like they usually are. Well I went down beneath in these cool movie-like tunnel things and was looking around when.. lo and behold.. the organist himself! Bangin away for all above to hear. I had to make my roomies proud and be a creeper, so of course I took a picture.

A couple things about London I’ve really appreciated this week: #1 – the weather. Ever since we went to Preston last week and I almost died of the cold, London has seemed so warm! Everyday I just think to myself, “Psh. I’m not even going to die in this cold. Bring it on.” #2 – If you fake knowing where you’re going, you’ll way impress your friends. I went on another London walk this week and I was in charge of leading. For some reason everyone is convinced I’m like the best leader in the world and they think I studied the trail before we went. Truth is I’d never seen it before, I just pretended to know what I was doing. Bahahaha I’m so sneaky! 

This picture kills me. Jumping picture gone horribly wrong! 

 Take 2. Much better. 

 We have no boys to kiss here. So we kiss rocks from the English Channel. 

 The Canterbury Cathedral organist himself. Consider yourself creeped!

 Pretty pretty please with a castle on top. 

 The castle we almost got to tour!

About a fourth of the Canterbury Cathedral. There was no way I was gettin the whole thing in one picture without running a mile back. 

Toes? Eh. Who needs um.

Now that I’m sitting in the warmth of my room, I can say that this weekend was truly an absolute blast. However.. there was a time when I thought I would never see my toes again and if you’d have asked me THEN, I’d probably have been less enthusiastic. I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold in my entire life!

We left Thursday morning and rode on the bus for about 4 hours until we got to the Fountains Abbey ruins. Easily one of my favorite things we’ve done so far. This Abbey was built in the 1200s and was abandoned some years later. It is now just a ruin that you can go visit. It's absolutely amazing! We got to climb all over it taking pictures and walking around the sites. When we were learning about the monks on the way there (one meal a day, no talking, living alone, no marriage, no playing, only contemplating/praying) I was convinced that there was NO WAY that was at all enjoyable. But after seeing the surroundings of this Abbey, my mind has been changed. Living alone in silence with THAT as your backyard would definitely be somewhat enjoyable. No question. To make things better, the weather was both beautiful and SUNNY! One of the five whole hours of sun we get this month! But I speak too soon. We went from there to York, where things took a drastic change for the worse… *cue funeral march*

At York we visited the York Minster Cathedral and walked along the Roman Wall. Which wasn't too bad considering the cathedral was indoors. BUT! When we got to Preston, the true cold began. We got off the bus for a 2 hour - outdoor - church history tour. Listen to some of the stuff we got to see: the court where Oliver Cowdery and Orson Hyde first preached as missionaries, the dentist office where Joseph Smith had his chipped tooth fixed, the memorials to honor the first 9 baptisms in Europe, the site on the river where they were actually baptized, the home where President Hinckley read his famous "forget yourself and go to work" letter, the Preston temple, and the home where the early missionaries cast out devils. Pretty awesome, huh? Yeah, Well I'm sad to say that I didn't enjoy it at all! The ENTIRE time all I could think about was the fact that I may never see my toes again. Looking back and listing every place we went to.. NOW I think it was totally awesome!! Lets just say the only thing that kept me sane was imagining myself lying on the hot rocks of Lake Powell. Scratch that.. SCORCHING rocks of Lake Powell. (You may think I'm kidding.. I really did picture that for most of the tour). Okay I'm done complaining about how cold it was. I just wanted to give you a taste of what I remember most about this trip. Kidding, but it is a large memory.
Saturday was basically dedicated to the BEATLES! Across from our hotel in Liverpool was the Beatles Museum. It was so much fun! We got to learn all about their beginnings, see their first instruments, their first gigs and friends and hook ups and everything. I'm just delirious with BEATLEMANIA! I bought an extra postcard and I'm trying to decide who to send it to... so if you get one, feel extremely blessed. 
Have I talked about how much I'm learning about attitude and choice yet? Good. Cause I'm going to. Being here has helped me understand that WE make our experiences. Watching the different ways that everyone handles things just makes me realize that I can choose how wonderful this experience is. It WILL be a great experience if I want it to be. I will learn and grow and have a blast. On the other hand, I can choose to see the negative in everything as well and hate it. Luckily, I've definitely decided that choosing the happy attitude is much better. I'm enjoying everything I can and not regretting anything. When times come that I may feel alone or sad, I just choose to not. I think it's something everyone works on their entire lives, but I just feel a new sense of understanding lately. 
THEREFORE! I'm absolutely having a blast with everything. Living here is such a dream and I still can't believe I'm here. I bought a ticket to Paris via chunnel yesterday and my plane ride to Italy last week. From here on out.. I'm traveling somewhere every week for the rest of the semester! WOOHOO! 
Well.. that's all for now. Until next time, my friends. Over and out.  

This is one of the many MANY pictures I took at the Abbey ruins. It was absolutely beautiful and I'm crushed that the pictures don't do it justice. 

Remember my comment about the monks having a heavenly backyard? These are the "water gardens" at the Abbey Ruins. I couldn't capture the beauty with one shot, but this is one of the angles. 

This is Kinsey and I on one of the streets in York. The whole town is just like this.. little cobblestone streets and cute shops everywhere. 

The last time I ever saw my feet... or so I thought at the time. I was very convinced they'd fall off due to the cold, so I took a picture for remembrance sake. 

This is a monument in Liverpool dedicated to the early Mormon settlers who crossed the Atlantic to go to America. I thought maybe I had ancestors that were included in that bunch? Mom? Dad? Yes...?

We all live in a yellow submarine. 

Preston Temple! 

This was the river where the first 9 converts from Europe were baptized. It was an absolutely beautiful view from the bridge I was standing on! 

I miss a lot of things.. but mostly Banagrams.

Today marks 2 weeks in Londontown. I'm not sure how it feels back in the states, but I think maybe time goes slower here. There is too much I've done for it to have only been 2 weeks. But I'm not complainin! One of my favorite things are the "London Walks". I've done 4 of the 12 so far.... 4 and a half if you count the one I did last week that was interrupted by an abrupt DOWNPOUR!... and each one is about 3 miles long. They take you all over the city to places I'd normally never go. Most of the pictures I take that are in London are on the walks because you walk past everything cool! Today we walked over by the Tower of London and had a blast walking up and down the alleyways.
The highlight of my week so far though would have to be Wicked last night. I've seen it twice before in LA, but it's still been a few years. The best part is - every time i see it, it gets better! I think I was smiling the ENTIRE SHOW! Defy Gravity is so overwhelmingly amazing. Popular is sooo funny. For Good is... okay I could go on about every song, so I'll stop. I will say this: Fiero was a babe and his accent didn't bother me much. Maybe I'll go for the green approach and see if I can get a man like that! Okay okay, I'm TOTALLY KIDDING! A witch hat and broom would probably work just fine.
I made a fabulous purchase today. I bought a planner... oh and they call them Diaries here. It took me awhile to figure that out. Ba!... that I found in a cute little bookshop. I love cute little bookshops!! Oh and after I picked it out I learned it was half off. 3.50 for a planner!! Weird... I just had an epiphany. So I wanted to put a dollar sign in front of that 3.50, but I realized it was POUNDS not dollars. Is there a pound sign on keyboards in England like there are dollar signs on ours?? I've never thought of this before. I may need to go find a computer store and investigate. I'll get back to you on this...
British Museum=Intense. There was way too much stuff to look at and it was overwhelming. You could spend an entire week there and not see everything! Luckily I was given a specific room to investigate and I'll have time to go back again. There was a dead guy that blew my mind though! Lindow Man. His body was preserved in a bog and even though he's been dead for two thousand years, he still looks very... person-like. It's creepy.
I was super excited to go to the North Countries.. and then I watched the movie Miss Potter. Now I'm ECSTATIC!! Miss Potter buys a house in York or somewhere close.. which is where we're going... and it was breathtaking. If it is half as pretty as what it looked like in the movie, I may die of gorgeousity. We leave tomorrow morning and will be there until Saturday!! My next post may be 90% pictures and you may be 100% jealous.

 On our London Walk in a cool little courtyard. Me, Karly, Liz, Haley, and Jamie! A very nice stranger with a very nice accent took this picture. 

 Same courtyard.. Same Girls.. Different Random Stranger.

 Well. If they say so. 

 There is a sign right beneath us that you can't see... It said "Slippery. Stay off edge". Whoops! 

 Kaylee and Haley with their friend CITY OF LONDON. 

 Cool looking Bathroom. Unfortunately, I didn't have to go.. so I'm not sure if the inside is cool.. but the outside sure is! 

 This may have sparked more homesickness than anything ever has.. 

The cute little bookshop I told you about. With a cute little girl reading a book. Oh wait! That's me!

Love is IN THE AIR!

It's official. I'm a sister again. Don't worry, I don't mean my parents are having another child. Amber's simply GETTING MARRIED and I'll have a new brother. I can't believe it!!! Okay actually I can.. I've actually been expecting it. But still! It's going to be a wee bit difficult to help plan the wedding while I'm overseas, but by golly I'm gonna do my best! I skyped with Mitch and Amber last night and everyone at the center knows I'm crazy now. I was screaming and jumping around like a fool. 

This weekend was full of shopping and walking. I think I've walked 20 miles in the last 2 days! Saturday morning we walked all the way down to Portobello Road. Which just that was exciting! Yes, I walked down a street that has a song written about it. So of course I had to take a picture... and sing the song while I was doing so.. of the street sign. P.S. Street signs here are weird. They are just on the side of whatever building is on the corner. None of the green sign on a post stuff I'm used to. But Portobello Road has a HUGE market every Saturday morning and it was so so fun! There was food and jewelry and clothes and.. everything! We found a stand with tons of scarves for WAY CHEAP! So I bought 3 scarfs for 5 pounds. Score! The only bad part was the fact that it was super windy and miserable weather.. I've decided wind makes everything bad. It can be cold, just don't give me wind. Later that day we walked down to Herrods (biggest department store EVER) and attempted to shop/eat. Holy yeah right! It was so packed it was impossible to breathe! Everyone was on edge because of the crowds and noise.. not to mention how expensive everything was.. so we went to a little restraunt called Giraffe instead. SO YUMMY! Liz and I played this game as we walked: I would point to a random person we passed and she would make up their life story. Then we'd switch. You wouldn't believe the things some people are going through here in London. It's unreal! 

Today was the biggest adventure of all: Church. We were given our ward assignments last week, so today was our first day going to our wards. I was assigned with 4 others to the London North ward. It starts at 10, so naturally we left at 8:30. NATURALLY! I think the furthest I ever remember driving to church is.. maybe 15 minutes? And I was a kid so it was probably actually 5. So we leave to get on the tube, but as we're hopping on the doors close really fast and Ashlie gets left behind! We tell her we'll wait at the next station. We waited 40 MINUTES! Ha she accidentally took the wrong line and.. long story short it took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to church. The ward was SUPER small and barely had enough people to fill the needed callings. As soon as sacrament meeting ended the Primary President jumped all over us. I'm now the Primary Pianist/Teacher assistant. It was so humbling to be in a ward where every member had to sacrifice SO much just to get there. It was so diverse (ethnically AND spiritually) and unlike any church thing I've ever been a part of. I'm so glad that I am having this experience. Already I feel so humbled.. and it's only been one week! 

Funny story about our Relief Society though. Our teacher was struggling with her english a little bit, but was doing a great job. She was talking about how important it is to keep Unity, and to make her point wrote up on the board U = E + L. Unity = E+L? She then wanted us to guess what E and L stood for. The class got Love right away, but then couldn't figure out what the E was for! We kept guessing and guessing! Finally, she decided to just tell us. She wrote on the board: Unity= Love + ESPIRITUALITY. Espirituality???? Yeah. We tried to tell her that espirituality was not an english word, but she didn't get it. She just said "yes, but it is close, no?" hmm.. except for the FIRST LETTER PART! Which is only what we were guessing. Haha I was laughing so hard. It was so cute of her.

Oh. Plus there are two old ladies in our ward that I'm pretty sure are crazy.

Other things I've learned about London: 1) Everyone has a dog, and their dog always MATCHES THEM and  2) Londoners don't wear pants - It's tights only with a long shirt/dress! 

"Portobello Road, Portobello Road!" Those are actually the only words to the song I know... 

 Me, Kinsey, Ashlie, Sharron, Liz, Elise, Paige, Annie, and Karly chillin at the tube station. Dang we're cool. 

For Mitch: This is the office Jane Austen once published her books at. And a famous line from one of these books: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." 

I took a bath with the Romans.

I'm just too popular for my own good. Everyone just LOVES my blog posts and just CAN'T WAIT until I post another. WELL!! Here ya go! I'll finally come down from my little piece of heaven and write about my happenings.
Yesterday. Was. Amazing. We left at 7:30 in the morning and were gone all day long. After a 2 hour bus trip we got to Salisbury where we took a tour of the cathedral there. The tour was way cool.. another amazingly decorated cathedral.. but my favorite part was talking to the bishop afterwards. Basically they gave us time to do whatever we wanted afterwards and instead of going to get a pastry crescent thing with everyone else.. I found a bishop and talked to him! He was SOOO cute! Seriously so old and talked very very slow. I wanted to know about the massively cool organ mostly, but of course he told me lots of other stories too. I almost missed the bus! Oh.. what I wouldn't give to play that massively cool organ..
Another half hour on the bus took us to Stonehenge. If you don't know what that is, think BIG ROCKS. Our Professor talked about it in history class on Tuesday and I'm very glad he did. Knowing a little bit about it made it MUCH more interesting. My favorite theory was the ant theory. It all started as a giant rock and the ants have slowly eaten away most of it so that it sits as you see it today. That or something to do with extraterrestrial beings. No the big rocks were very cool. We mostly just took pictures and left.
Now, for my favorite! BATH! I think when my husband and I retire someday we'll move to Bath. It's such a cute little place. We went to an assembly hall first. Don't know what that is? Think Jane Austin. Yeah. I felt like I was walking around in one of her books. SO CUTE! Bath is where her book Persuasion takes place and I can totally see why. After that we went to the Roman Baths. HOLY COW I WANT TO BE A ROMAN BATHER! It's basically a natural hot spring that they built an extremely cool roman building around. The romans went there to socialize, do religious things.. take baths? yeah. We had those self tour guide things and I went nuts. I listened to every single thing I could. Also.. I talked to a Stone Mason. We're practically best friends (See Picture Below). But my favorite part of the entire Roman Baths? I need to start a new paragraph for this, hold on.
My favorite part of the Roman Baths... the CURSES. This is definitely something we need to take up again. What the Romans would do (p.s. This Roman Bath was dedicated to the God Minerva. Not to be confused with Professor McGonagal.) is take little black pieces of something and scratch a curse into it. For example: "Amber stole my shirt this morning without asking, please make her bleed from her fingernails until she's dead." Then.. they role it up and throw it in the spring!! Isn't that the best idea ever? To think, I could've been cursing my many enemies my whole life. MWAHAHAHA! It's like the new voodoo doll. So watch out if you've ever wronged me.
I can't really top the curse thing. But everything else this week has been awesome, too. I've been to all my classes now and this semester is going to rock. I have to go to lots of museums, countries, historically cool places, etc. etc. LIFE IS GOOD! If you have any complaints/comments, please post them below and I'll get to them when I can. As for now.. I head back to my little piece of heaven.

 See what I mean? The ants easily could've carved that. 

 Liz and I dancing in the ballroom of an Assembly Hall. She's eLIZabeth and I'm... Mr. Darcy.

 My Best Bud the Stone Mason. He's holding the curses I wrote and we're about to throw them in the water. 

 Don't tell me that wouldn't be the coolest bath you've EVER taken!

 You know me and my flirtatious ways.. the Knights are all over me. 

A really bad picture of the massively cool organ at the Salisbury Cathedral that I'd DIE to play! 

Unexpected Blessings

Moving away and living with 35 other girls that you've barely met before, in a country you've never been, with money that has suddenly lost half it's value... can be really hard! I remember the week before I left I started to get really nervous as I realized all of these changes that were about to happen. I'm not someone who likes change much... so it really scared me. But I can't BELIEVE how blessed I've been in this first week. I've tried so hard to rely on the Lord and let him help me to see the good experiences everywhere. Tonight, I feel like I was very unexpectedly blessed with one of those good experiences. And it has very little to do with London's great adventures and excitement. 

I decided to stay in and do homework tonight because almost everyone else went out to see shows that I wasn't very interested in seeing. So I went into the Library and started reading. Another girl sat down at the table next to me and I read as she emailed her parents. Long story short.. I noticed she wasn't doing too hot. I offered some very small words of comfort and then thought it best to leave her alone. Suddenly I thought, "Kaylee! You've been asking to have good experiences here in London where you can grow and learn.. well here ya go! Why are you being such a scardy cat about it?!" So I did something I normally don't do and I put down my book and sincerely tried to comfort this girl. We just talked and she shared with me all of her worries. Ironically, everything she was so stressed about were things at the bottom of my mind, too. We were really able to relate and help each other. When our conversation ended we both felt a lot better about things and how we were going to make the most of this amazing experience we have. 

So I guess this post is pretty boring as far as London goes. When I decided to stay in tonight I worried that I was giving up a good experience that I could be having "out in London".. but now that the night is over, I know that this is exactly where I needed to be! This experience has been one of the most life-changing and moving experiences I've had yet! I was able to both receive an answer to my prayers and be guided to help answer another's.

As far as my travels go, we're leaving on an all day field trip tomorrow to visit Stonehenge, Bath, and Chawton. I'm SOO excited! Now that classes have begun and things have settled in, I can start to REALLY learn about this AMAZING CITY!!

 I. Will. Rock. You.

 Picture perfect neighborhood makes for a nearly perfect picture!

 For some reason I find it hilarious that they use the word Toilet instead of Restroom. There will be huge signs hanging at the malls that say "TOILETS". I laugh every time. 

Isn't this the cutest thing ever? This is how all the little neighborhoods in London are! I could do nothing but walk around the cute streets all day and be completely content. 

Running for Empress of the World

I can't believe I've only been here for four days. It feels like at LEAST a week. I guess our days are so packed full of going places and doing things that it seems too much for only a few days. Classes start tomorrow though, so maybe now things will start to get into a more normal routine. Yesterday we went to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. I wish I could say it was the coolest thing ever.. but I didn't see any of it! By the time we got there it was way too crowded and I didn't see a thing. We're gonna go back another week so that we can get the full experience. It was fun to walk around the parks and sites around the Palace though. There are 12 "London Walks" that we're supposed to do this semester and one of them was right around that area. It was super pretty and fun! Perhaps it would've been even more fun if it hadn't been FREEZING AND WINDY, but I don't complain. 

You know what's crazy about London? Everyone has a dog. And it's not like America where dogs have to be on leashes or aren't allowed in parks. They are allowed to roam free and go anywhere! It's so much fun. There are always different kinds of dogs roaming around walking with their human friends. The other day I saw a man walking seven dogs at once! It was quite a site. I wish I would've snapped a picture! dang. We also went to the show Woman in Black. It's apparently the longest running play in London? It's unlike any play I've ever seen. There are only 2 actors and it is a seriously scary play. All of you friends who love to laugh at me while I watch scary movies? You would've loved this. I was freaking out the whole time. Then last night there was this weird noise that woke me up in the middle of the night. I went completely rigid and it took me a second to talk myself back into reality. The play was really good though! I just may have nightmares the rest of my life. 

Maybe the most overwhelming thing to me the past few days has been how expensive everything is here! At first it seems about the same, but then I realized that with pounds instead of dollars, everything costs almost twice as much! It's stressful enough buying everything for yourself without having to worry about converting your money to pounds and back, too. Sheesh. Oh but it is cool that their "dollar bills" are coins. Sometimes I think "Oh I can't buy that, I only have change." But then I remember that "just change" can convert to like 15 bucks! ... or pounds.. or whatever. Booyah! I don't understand why the whole world has to be on different systems though. We should all have the same currency, drive on the same side of the road, speak the same language (although I do love having different accents..hmm..) and use the same metric system! Maybe I'll run for World Empress and put all of this into motion. 

 Some of the way cute girls here at London with me! Katie, Carly, Elise, Kinsey, Ashlie, Paige, ME, and Sharron.  

 Carly and I in front of Buckingham Palace. It was SOO cold.. my face was frozen and I could barely smile!

When the flag is up, the Queen is in. Yes, this picture is proof that I was at Buckingham Palace at the same time as the Queen. 

Rain with a chance of pour.

The last day has been a blur or awesomeness. Last night Spring and I spontaneously decided we wanted to go see Legally Blonde. It's a 20 minute trip to a part of town we'd never been before, but we decided it'd be worth it. So we went!! It was SOOO good. I loved it. First show in London=success. Now I'm just trying to decide where to go for #2. Phantom? Lion King? Cinderella? Wicked? Jersey Boys?(don't know anything about that one? Beauty and the Beast? HELP!! As far as today goes... I went running this morning down the streets of London. Best. Run. Ever. I think I'll be doing that a lot. We spent the day at the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey and it was soo fun. Unfortunately I'm not over my Jet lag yet and I hit a way tired spot in the middle of the day. It was hard to stay awake!! But Westminster Abbey was truly indescribable. So much history... I really feel like I don't know what to say about it. Every square inch is covered in some immaculate carving. Oh and as you will be able to tell from the following pictures... it rained ALL day!! It's kinda fun to just carry your umbrella everywhere actually. I felt very.. foreign. or something. Alright I feel like my brain is slowly going to mush and I'm starting to not make sense. So here are the my favorite pictures from today:)

 Just me taking a stroll along a cute black fence. Oh, and the Tower of London just happens to be in the background. 

 Haley and Kaylee! 

 Cobblestone.. Light post... Umbrella... London Bridge... Cute bench... Rain... I feel like this picture is a great representation of London. 

 So.. the goal with this picture was to make it look like I was holding two swords... FAIL.

 "Umm... okay that didn't work. How about I just stand next to the cool massive swords instead?" "Yeah that's still kinda awkward looking."

 The tower of London was amazing!! It was packed with so much history and tragedy I couldn't believe it. This was a chapel inside one of the towers. 

 Apparently this is one of the smallest armors ever to have been built. I think by the time it was finished the child had probably already outgrown it! 

 This is me standing in the middle of an awesome street next to the Tower of London:)

 After the Tower of London we took the tube over to Westminister Abbey. We walk out of the tube station and I literally jumped and yelped as I saw Big Ben towering over me! I wasn't expecting him to be so close so soon!!

 Ben and I. We're the cutest of couples. 

Kinsey and I in front of Westminister Abbey! It was BEAUTIFUL inside and out. They wouldn't let you take pictures inside for some reason though... 

 For some reason I saw this sign and pictured my dad trying to force his way into Dean's yard on his bike. I nearly laughed out loud. Sorry dad, please dismount. 

 Remember how I said you weren't allowed to take pictures inside of Westminster Abbey? Well I might have made an exception. This is where Jane Austen is buried. I couldn't resist. 

 This is part of our fabulously wonderful group. I'm on the far left. The picture was supposed to include the cool building behind us... but I guess Professor Crowe missed that part of the instructions..

 I think it's safe to say this is most of our group. We were all huddling outside Westminster Abbey waiting for our tour to start!

Is this not like.. the coolest picture ever? Love.