AUGUST 7, 2008

London is just really rainy today and all I have been doing is homework the last couple of days. Yesterday we took a trip to caterbuy you know chaucers book caterbury tales about all those people on thier pilgrimage to canterbury to touch the bones of saint thomas bessett. anyway I learned that old ladies are grouchy and that catholics are crazy. This old lady called bro. holland a porky lol. I couldn't believe it. We just toured the old cathedral which you would have loved because it was a good mix of romanesque and gothic arches. It was burned down or destroyed in some areas and then the old romanesques arches were replaced by gothic ones. I am getting kind of sick of touring churches and seeing things that crazy catholic people traveled days and weeks to touch because they believed it would heal them. I guess some guy had a bloody nose and he touched the casket of saint thomas beckett and his nose was cured this info was from a freaking stained glassed window (crazy catholics just put a piece of cotton up it and chill out). Anyways we learned all about the black prince of the hundred years war which was kind of interesting because he was sixteen and a very brave young man. Then we went to dover. This is the port city that you get on the ferry at to take over to callet (which is the french port city). Standing on the white cliffs of dover you can see your beloved france. We went to the castle which is very old and cool. We learned about how it held up against the siege of prince louis when he was trying to take power from the guy who signed the magna carta and was not being good to his word. It was a fun little experience. We also got to go to the little beach that is just right there except it is not a beach at all because it is millions of rocks instead of sand but you gotta take what you can get. Me and danny ( my best friend that is a three year old) spent our time with our feet in the english channel throwing rock in the water. The cliffs were amazing and brother holland read us a really inspiring devotional written by his dad about preserverance and the white cliffs of dover overlooking the english channel which was the only thing between england and Hitlers natzis. I also went to the imperial war museum the other day and went through a holocaust exhibit. I started bawling it was so sad. i just can't take it when little kids are hurt. One of the naked little boys looked just like jaxon and was being let to a gas chamber and I just lost it. Thinking about it now i'm even starting to lose it a little. They had this way cool thing there called the trench experience and it was like a little path that was underground and had a painted sky like pirates and was just an interactive experience of what is was like to be in the trenches. Anyways thats what I have been up to in the past two days now I'm just working on homework because finals are next thursday and they are not letting up on us. The work is really hard out here it sucks. but at least its not like science classes because to be honest i don't ever read or prepare mysself for class and i will probly end up with straight As. Oh the life of an english major. I chose the wrong major but I guess where much is givin much is required lol.

AUGUST 2

I just got back from a trip around london on my own. It was nice to get away from people for a second and just be me. I walked down to the tate modern and got to see some surrealist, expressionist, and really modern paintings. It was really fun to spend as much or as little time on each piece as I wanted.
I love london but I really miss home. On our day trip last week we went to visit churchills home in chartwell and hever castle which is where anne boelyn grew up and her family lived. That was where the other boelyn girl was filmed so it was fun to see that. We went to take a tour of parlament yesterday and got to learn the rituals and see all of the governmental things. It was interesting. I went and saw chicago last night and it was absolutely amazing!! I loved it so so much. It is so fun being able to see so many cool musicals here I really love it.

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.

JUNE 27

ok so i didn't sleep well at all last night. I woke up at two thirty and couldn't get back to sleep. It was really lame :(. I woke up this morning and went down stairs for breakfast because I was absolutely starving from not eating very much yesterday but the food was horrible. I have forgotten how bad the food can be in Europe. Maybe i am just spoiled by my peanut butter captian crunch. So for our walking tour class we have to walk all over london and see everything and do these certain routes which is sort of lame because you get lost or you don't really learn that much so its just looking at random things around the city. It was kinda a gloomy day and it started raining which sucked. London is such a beautiful city. The buildings are so old and they just age so well. I can't believe how well new buildings and old buildings mesh. I feel like no one takes credit cards it is seriously so lame. we went to this little hole in the wall sandwich shop which was amazing and they made my sandwhich and I handed the girl my card and she was like sorry no credit cards. so I had to run to an atm thankfully we were in the financial part of london where there were a lot of banks. So I guess now cash it is :(. things are so expensive here it is a bummer. but I guess plays are pretty cheap so thats good. I can't wait to see phantom and les mis. I have to do it on a say that jet lag isn't killing me though. I've been doing a little church hopping myself. i was praying in a catholic cathedral. if they were so dark and depressing and smelt a little better i bet the spirit might stop by. lol just kidding. I was also in a crypt beneth the church..cool but a little morbid especially since there was a weird restaurant down there.

JUNE 26

We went to the pub and everyone was crazy and yelling and cheering it was so fun. Spain was playing russia and spain won..I was sad. anyways I got here fine but when I went to get my ticket for my train and my confermation number didn't work but then i talked to the manager and he gave me a complementary ticket. I got on the train and got to paddington station and was lugging around my stuff trying to find the taxi. i finally found the long a taxi line and waited for half and hour then got in a taxi and didn't have british pounds on me so I paid him in american cash because he didn't take credit cards and it cost twelve dollars and I only had six. Thankfully he was really nice and I just gave him what I had. crazy huh? but thats not the end of my adventure..he dropped me off on the wrong side of the street and I spent forever trying to find the place only to realize that it was on the other side..duh. Anyways I made it and it had been a fun day. It already 10 pm so I have to force myself to go to sleep.