JULY 25

I just got back from scotland a couple hours ago. It was really cool. I really love it here and I have made really good friends. I bought some used books in scotland that i really think will be cool to have and a scottish blanket. i am scared though that I'm running out of money hopefully I won't spend much more in the next three weeks. I really want to see chicago though and I have to go to church. I hate spending it on the train going to church it is seriously so lame. i am sick of worrying about money and wish I could just go see every show and every ballet here, but I just want to see chicago and then I will be done. I still have alot of work left to do. I also really want to go to the tate modern. there is so much to do in so little time. I miss america a lot. I miss dollars a lot. Everything is so cheap there so be grateful.

JULY 22

Scotland is beautiful and I love it. Today was like my favorite day ever, we went to Sir Walter Scott house and it was a beautifully sunny day. You should have seen his study. you will totally have one just like it when we build our dream house. It was one big room that had a terrace on the inside that had a ladder that went up to it and shelves of books that surround it. I would have taken a picture but we weren't allowed. The UK really does gardens right. His gardens were amazing and the grass was the softest grass I've ever felt in my life. It was like a pillow so i layed down outside in the beautiful sun and basked for like 30 min. It was so nice to feel the rays on my skin. Today we also went to some ruins of Hadrians wall, which was built by the romans and was a fortress against the scottish barbarians lol. It was quite a feat extending from sea to sea. It was really cool to see the ruins of a 2000 year old wall. So then this morning I am woken up to none other than the fire alarm. The whole hostel, which was a transformed mideval castle, was evacuated. Did I mention this happened at 4:30 in the morning. So the alarm goes off and we walk up to our room and just our luck the room next door to ours is the only room in the entire hostel that the alarm was still going off in. I've had an interesting day lol. Now I'm in Edinburough and just ate the best fish and chips of my life. So greasy but so good. don't worry I'll do sit ups tonight. Everyone is in such a bad mood today its no fun. Probly because of the stupid fire alarm. I am going on a hike at six tomorrow morning and all I brought were rainbows (the shoes of champions). It will be interesting.

JULY 20

I went to Brugge the other day which is in Belgium and was way fun. I am leaving for Scotland in the morning and won't be back until Saturday. It will be nice that we don't have to go to class all week though. I will send you pics of Brugge when i get a chance. It blows my mind how fast I go through money. I was surprised though because going to Brugge only cost 40 pounds and kinda was a steal because we took a ferry over to france so now I can say I've been there.

JULY 12

I spent the day out with tammy and went to h and m and top shop. Then we went to dinner at nandos which is this amazing chicken place. I loved it. I'm really enjoying the experience here and I'm so grateful for this oppertunity I just wish i would have thought about how much I was going to miss my family before I came here. It is so nice to be surrounded by people who unconditionally love you.

JULY 11, 2008

Today one of my friends ran up to the vitamin water truck on the street and asked them for free samples. She used to work for vitamin water but he totally got out of his truck and gave us a big carton of vitamin water. weird yet way cool huh? I am becoming really good friends with this girl caitlin. She is just like the perfect Utah mom I seriously love her. Never a negative word comes out of her mouth and I just want to be just like her. her boyfriend ( I am assuming they are getting married in nov) is the one who is getting his masters in accounting. Anyways i really am starting to get to know this city and get myself around. The crisp air is really refeshing and the parks are to die for. I love running here because you have perfect scenery and perfect running weather. I'm trying to get in tip top shape for the big day. But the parks are huge and so many interesting people are everywhere. Interesting people are especially found in the tube station and on the tube. today there was this drunk lady who was hideous. She was almost like passed out and smelt horribly of BO. I felt so sad for her.

JULY 4

So to day was just a normal day. I was actually pumped because we didn't have to leave until nine thirty and so we got extra time to sleep in. The bad thing is that girs get up way early and its hard to sleep in :(. The floor like creeks so that it is really loud when people walk by (especially the fatter girls). Everyone has been really excited about wimbledon you know tennis, but I really could care less. For some reason they all love it but it doesn't make any sense to me. I'm a baseball girl now lol. Anyways I got up reluctantly and went down stairs to eat breakfast and not to my surprise they had cereal and fruit AGAIN. I'm way sick of eating cereal i just want a pop tart. My stomach still hurt way bad today but as the day progressed it lessened. I think its because I'm dehydrated. I've bee trying to drink plenty of water lately so that I don't get sick. anyways the tower was really cool but i had just been there about two years ago so it was just exactly the same as I remebered. the crown jewls are amazing and it seriously makes me so mad to look at them and know that some people lived so rich and others were so poor. No one should have the things they did when there are starving citizens in their country. the things that blow me away are the orbs. what the crap does one do with an orb. You are not allowed to take pictures or else i would have some for you. I then came back and slept forever. It felt so good. I definately needed to get some much needed rest. Then we all ate dinner and got ready to go out for America's birthday. Alex bought these rad pants that were blue and kaitlyn bought them in red while another girl wore white. It was so fun to go out with the girls tonight. Except I meant to tell you this on the phone but I forgot..my friend tammy was dancing and this black guy came up behind her and started putting his hands all over her and i was watching and kind of laughing kind or freaked out for her and noticed she was trying to rip his hands off her. the harder she tried the more this guy grabbed. I was horrified i like froze while one of the girls pulled her away and tammy yelled at the guy. It was way scary. But don't worry no guys were about me tonight. i seriously didn't have a single guy even try to dance with me. It was wonderful. it had to be my fat rock lol. Anyways when we got out of the club we realized the tube station totally closed so we wern't exactly sure how we were going to get home. But we were so proud of ourselves because we found the bus stop and the bus that took us back. I know what you are thinking..why not take a taxi? but there were like twelve girls it would have been really hard and probly pretty expensive. Everything is expensive in London it kind of blows.Well itss two thirty I have to go to bed.

JULY 02

So today we got up early and slept on the bus. For the part I wasn't sleeping it was the most beautiful drive through a countryside that is absolutely amazing. There were fields of green spinkled with georgous patches of yellow. We reached stonehenge and it was surreal. I couldn't believe I was actually there. It is much smaller in real life than it is made out to be on the discovery channel. I learned that they used deer antlers and cow shoulder bones as their primitive tools to build the place. And that much of it is gone because people used to bring a jack hammer and cut off pieces of it for a keepsake. This actually happened a few nights ago. Anyways it was undescribable. what was really fun was playing with the holland kids. They have a little boy named danny and a girl named grace who are absolutely adorable and what do you know they love me lol. Danny sat on my lap the whole way back. we played on the grass outside stonehenge and they told me stories about their grandpa (Jeffery R) which was really cool. They are such a great family. Then we got back on the bus and made our way to Bath. This place is really cool because in the time of the roman empire the romans conqured england and many settled here. they build huge baths in these natural hot spings that at the time they couldn't explain so they blamed them on the gods. Don't worry I put my foot in. It was so cool because they had a holigraph projection of romans in along the walls that looked so real. this was the city that Jane Austing spend a lot of her time and where many of her novels take place. It is absolutely georgous. It was surprisingly clean and just so european and nice. Don't worry there are plenty of pictures. I hope that you day is going well. I'm not going to lie my day could have been way better if I wasn't worried about you the whole time.