Sunday in Hyde Park

Today we attended the Hyde Park ward because we don't have our callings in the wards yet. We got to walk across beautiful (well my feet didn't think it was so beautiful - so they protested with blisters) Hyde Park and be a part of a very diverse ward. During relief society we were challenged to list ten things we are grateful for. Since nothing else very exciting happened today I decided to share my list (its not in any order).

1. the gospel
2. my family
3. my education at BYU
4. the opportunities I have been given in life
5. my friends
6. the atonement
7. the Book of Mormon
8. missionaries
9. personal revelation
10. my testimony

Day One

After getting in from the airport around 2 in the afternoon we received our orientation by the director of the spring study abroad. I was put in room four (which takes a lot of stair climbing to get to) with 11 others girls. We have a bathroom on our floor with three showers but the catch is that the entire building has no hot water. The heater is broken and probably won't be fixed until next week. Needless to say I just finished to coldest shower of my life - but I guess that's all part of the experience. We were also given our kitchen duty assignments as well as some basic rules, and then we were let free until dinner.

After moving in a group of us did our first school assignment (yep! school) We did the first walk in our London Walk's book which just goes around the neighborhood we are staying in and explores the shopping and restaurants in our area. When we returned from the walk we joined the rest of our group for some turkey sandwiches for dinner, much needed after having only airport food for over 24 hours.

To keep from falling asleep at 5 in the afternoon, me and 5 others decided to take a ride on the tube to Buckingham Palace. After a short ride in the wrong direction, we were able to find our way and take some great touristy pictures. I know we are supposed to blend in but its kind - like really, how often do you see six teenage London girls going to Buckingham Palace on a Saturday night. Honestly.


See, I told you. Cheesy touristy picture at Buckingham Palace. The queen was in though!

So from the Palace we went one through St. James Park which was really nice, especially because today was so sunny. From there we found some cool looking buildings with some funny looking guards in front of them...so we took pictures of course. Unfortunately a lot of pictures from this excursion are on other people's cameras because we felt bad asking someone to take a picture for us with 6 different cameras...but they will be up here eventually.

Down the street from the funny looking guards (yeah we didn't really know where we were) we found the House of Parliament, which helped us orient ourselves. From there we watched some protesters for a while and headed back to the tube to get to Boots before it closed. We loaded up on blow dryers, flat irons and everything else we need to look presentable at church tomorrow.

It has been a long day - I haven't slept in 48 hours - but it has been totally worth it. I can't wait to continue exploring this city.

So I know pictures with no people in them are kinda lame but here are some of the London sights I saw today.

The Finish Line

I'M HERE!

I made it to London safely and I am so excited to be here. Pictures will be coming shortly, maybe even by tonight. :)

The Journey...

Sitting here in the Atlanta airport I can’t help but feeling some relief that I am finally on my way to London. It seems like the events of the past few days have been set up to keep me from going, but I guess that’s part of the fun of the journey.

Finals ended ok, there was the usual stress of six tests in four days but I didn’t really feel relief when they were over – it was move out time. Since Jess and I are not living in Alpine Village next year and we have sold our spring and summer contracts we moved all of our things to Grandpa and GrEllen’s condo in Orem (thank you so so so much guys). My mom, Jess and I spent hours packing and cleaning but by Tuesday night it was pretty much done and we were planning on leaving late Wednesday morning…NOT.

So Tuesday night I am out saying goodbye to my friends when my car decides that it doesn’t want to turn anymore. Luckily Freedom (a very busy street for those of you who don’t live in Provo) wasn’t very crowded at 2 in the morning and I was able to pull into a parking lot safely. After a few phone calls and some time spent outside waiting for the tow truck in my pajamas at 7 in the morning my car was towed…yep, the car I was supposed to be driving home just three hours later. Come to find out the power steering hose had disconnected from the power steering container thing causing my car to be inoperable. Of course the dealership didn’t have the necessary parts so my car was stuck for a few days. Not to be thwarted from our mission, my mom ordered a rental car and we were on our way home around 4 in the afternoon.

Wednesday was supposed to be a day for me to run errands and get ready to go to London, but I got sick and mostly just laid around all day. Luckily I am feeling much much better today and sitting here in Atlanta I can’t wait to get on my flight in a few hours and get to London! I am so excited to spend a few months there and you all can expect to see all of the fun things that I am doing.

Ridiculous

This morning I woke up to this view outside my window.

You would never know it was the middle of April. I just keep telling myself...6 more days in Provo....6 more days in Provo...

Major Catch Up

A few weeks ago, when I was home visiting, my uncle told me I was a terrible blogger, because I hardly ever updated anything. I disagreed with him at the time...but now I am fully admitting that yes, lately I have been a horrible blogger. I don't really know what happened - I guess I could say mid-terms caught up with me, I have been having too much fun, or that Sundays (my usual blogging days) have gotten crazy lately. All of the above is true. Anyway, I have decided to catch up on everything that has been going on since the last time I posted anything...almost two months ago. Better late then never!

As you can tell, my blog isn't the only thing I've been neglecting...

This Weekend...

This weekend has been busy but so much fun. On Friday night there was a St. Patrick's Day dance down in the parking garage of our building. We dressed in our green clothes and drew four leaf clovers on our faces, unfortunately the pictures we took were deleted from my camera before they were put on my computer :(

Torrie, Me, and Jess before the dance in our matching jeans.

Saturday morning BYU hosted a race to raise money to fight cancer. Jess and I decided to run the 5K and it was so much fun. There were so many people there and it was great to be in such a positive atmosphere.

Me and Jess before the race. Sometimes I forget that i am in Utah and not in Las Vegas - like when I showed up to run in only shorts and a t-shirt when it was 35 degrees outside. Good thing the sun came up right before the race started.

I was number 971 and Jess was 970 thanks to our last names being right by each other in the alphabet.

Saturday night we had a bunch of friends over to join us in an indoor camping experience. We built a fort in our family room out of our couches, chairs, table, and a lot of blankets and then broiled smores in our oven. We topped it off by watching Disturbia from inside our fort. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken. I know, I can't believe it either.

Sunday we invited the girls that live across the hall over for some dinner. We made enchiladas and they brought some brownies. It was delicious and so much fun spending time with these girls. We will definitely be doing it again.

All of us after we destroyed our food. It was delicious.