Okay so I am way behind on my blogging...I have no computer which makes it a little more difficult right now not only to blog but add pictures...so I will add pictures in later!
This week? Super busy. Lots of things have happened not only here in London with the program, but in my personal life as well!
The highlight for the week? Oxford University. Oxford is only about an hour outside of London and shirts are everywhere here at tourist shops making it vital that we take a trip there while we are all here. Last month we took a road trip to Cambridge University and to be honest, the two are totally different.
Personally, I liked Cambridge better. Totally different feel! Small town and the university is all clumped together so it feels somewhat like a campus. Oxford is much more spread out and in between the colleges is city. It felt like I went shopping and stopped in to look at different colleges, versus visiting a campus. But it was still neat to visit such a prestigious place! They only accept 50 US citizens making it very difficult for anyone to get in!
Our first stop was Christ's Church. This is where they filmed the Harry Potter first movie when they are coming into the great hall for dinner. They used a room in this Church for the great hall when they are assigned to their "houses". It was neat to see the stairs that they walk up. Everything seemed much smaller in real life...but that is how most things are here in England.
These are pictures of the great hall:
These are the stairs
Outside Christ's Church
We then took a break to get lunch at a cafe that was recommended to us...in all honesty it wasn't very good!! We got "french onion" soup and it did not look like normal french onion. In fact...it didn't look anything like french onion. The food was bland and was pricy for what we got. Bad lunch stop! But from what we heard, no one had any better of a lunch than we did and many different places were tried. I guess the food in Oxford is not exceptionally good...no surprise there.
"French Onion"
Our next stop: St. Mary's Church. This was another church in Oxford, but unlike Christ's Church, it is not part of one of the colleges at Oxford. It is a beautiful church that they have near by. Did I mention it was raining?! All. Day. Long. Which is why puffy coats and umbrellas were a must...
St. Mary's Church
We walked around exploring other parts of Oxford and took some fun photos of us in the rain
The rest of the day was spent shopping and looking around the city. It was such a great trip...
Precious moments?! There have been a ton this week. Moments that have made us all laugh, scream out of excitement and even cry. Big news...I got into the Public Relations program this week. I got an email with my letter attached about how I got into the program. This involved lots of screaming and jumping around together with my girlfriends who were all super excited. We went out and picked up Snog to celebrate!
Other exciting news...I got an email and was asked to work as an EFY counselor this summer. I am super excited!! I applied and interviewed before I left for London and was so excited to hear back from them.
Major: check. Job this summer: check.
Okay...I said there were tears and laughing and there definitely were plenty this week. Two days ago, I got up to use the bathroom at 4am. As I headed down the stairs I slipped off the top step, landed on my tailbone and rolled down the rest of the way. I landed on the landing in front of the bathrooms and was dying laughing at what had just happened. I hit the stairs so hard I swear I woke the whole house up. I laid there for a minute or so just in shock about what had happened. I have been struggling to sit through classes but every time I sit down and it hurts I just laugh at myself!
Then again, yesterday there was another stair incident. This time, it was not 4am, it was in the middle of the afternoon so my excuse of being half asleep doesn't apply! Somehow...don't ask me how...I twisted my toe funny and it threw me off balance. In an effort to catch myself I twisted my ankle and fell down the stairs. This time it was a combination of laughing and tears. It hurt SO bad, but I was laughing at myself because it was the second time this week.
My foot is wrapped, swollen and bruised. Luckily I can put weight on it so I don't have to use crutches, but I am officially a gimp and am slow getting around. It took me back to last year when I tore the ligaments in my foot. Thanks to all who have helped me get around both time this has happened...and I apologize for being so clumsy. Oh...I forgot to mention, the center has over 60 stairs up to my room, so the trek is 5 flights of stairs and 5 floors.
So a ton has happened this week...Oxford, PR, EFY, and injuries are only the surface as to all the fun that has happened this week!
I know I say this a ton, but time is going so fast. We are only 5 weeks away from being finished and it seems like we just got here even though we have done so many things.
March: travel month.
Next week is Italy then Wales, Ireland, France and Belgium! We are gone over half the month, and only have 4 days in March with nothing planned on the calendar. Time in London is limited and traveling only makes me appreciate England even more!
Sundays are a busy day, but Sunday nights are relatively quiet and give all of us here at the center time to bond. Sunday nights we have a tradition called "cookies and conversation". It was started by the wife of our professor and is the only baking I have been able to do here. All of our meals are cooked for us or we go out with no access to a kitchen. This Sunday was different! After dinner our professors asked a few of us to help them make cookies down in the kitchen for the group. How lucky am I? I mean who gets to help their professors and their wives make 140 cookies and talk for over an hour?
Here in London things are a little different. I still need to post about where I live with pictures, but for those of you who don't know, we all live together. There are 39 of us students here...33 girls and 6 boys. We have two main professors from BYU, Professor Crowe and Professor Dursteler. Dr. Crowe's wife also teaches our visual arts class! The professors live and eat with us in the BYU London Center. There are two sides to the building and they all live in apartments on the other side. It has been such a neat experience to live with our teachers. I know it may sound super weird, but they become like parents rather than scary people who grade us and watch our every move. We go to class in PJ's, no shoes just rolled out of bed and the classroom is down the stairs. We have all become super comfortable with each other and it is like we are one big family. A London family. The boys are like my brothers, and the girls are my best friends. It really brings people together when you are in another country feeling like you are on another planet. My professors are like my parents here. They do everything with us and when anyone has a problem, we go to them.
It was so nice to have the opportunity to just sit and talk and bake with my teachers. I know I won't ever have this opportunity again once I have left here. But for now...One of the best parts of the week?...Cookies and conversation.
This morning I had an interesting thing happen to me. I woke up and went the restroom early in the morning before my alarm rang...I leaned over my bed to look at my computer and noticed watery brown sticky gunk all over the top of my computer. My first thought was that the girl in the bunk above me had accidentally spilled soda over the edge of our bunk. I then realized that there was a leak in the ceiling that had started in the middle of the night and drenched my computer...just my luck!
Of course the leak would start right over my computer and drench my computer inside and out. My hope was that when I opened the lid that my keyboard would be clean and all I would have to do was clean the top cover off, but my hopes quickly faded when I lifted the lid to a soaked keyboard. You would all of me…the following hours involved no tears or frustration. I stayed calm and took my computer into the Apple store as soon as it opened at 10am. My girlfriends were the sweetest and helped me out with the whole process. I am so lucky to have amazing friends here.
The man at Apple was skeptical about whether or not the hard drive would be able to be recovered. Later that day I got a call about what he had found. He told me that although my hard drive was recovered (barely), there were over 10 components that were ruined.
Repairs would cost more than replacing a computer. This is when my heart rate began to rise. Would cover the cost of a brand new Mac? What if they didn’t? He then proceeded to tell me that because of the situation they were willing to replace it completely for free! Then the tears came out of gratitude. It was the biggest relief ever. I am currently using a friends computer waiting for my computer to be shipped here from the United Sates…yes I do need a $ sign and not a pound sign and I need the US computer that is compatible with US software. Two weeks!
Amidst the madness, we decided that we needed to get out and go somewhere. Wimbledon was on our list of things to see and it is only a 30 minute tube ride out of London…it was way more incredible than I thought.
Let me start off by saying that I am in no way a tennis player, but after this visit, I wish I was. I loved seeing all the fun tennis gear and the courts. I still can’t believe I stood in the place where history is made, tears and sweat are shed for the title, and thousands travel to come see the matches every year.
The courts were much smaller than I imagined. They fit many people into a small space. I expected to walk into a huge arena, but the space is much more intimate than that. It was still so incredible to stand where I did and think about how many people would love to see what I was seeing at that moment. I really had no idea that it was so close to downtown London.
Our trip included seeing the courts, the museum, the gift shop and pausing to eat/talk on the phone to the Apple man.
It was an amazing day. I wish all of you reading this that are big tennis fans could have been right there with me. I will never miss watching some of Wimbledon now that I have been there and seen it all in person. It really is an incredible place! 
Today we took a day trip to Hampton Court and the house of Charles Darwin!
Hampton Court:
Before I came to London I had no idea what Hampton court was, but after learning about it I gained a new appreciation in my understanding. Hampton court is King Henry's favorite house. It's not a palace or a political building, it truly is a house.. A big one!
King Henry VIII had 6 different wives. His first marriage lasted 20 years and was to a woman named Katherine. When she was in her 40s and had yet to produce a son, the king wanted a divorce. She was only able to produce one daughter, Mary. He wrote the Pope, but the Pope refused not believing in divorce. That is where the Church of England came about. The King, wanting a divorce, went about it and did it anyway. From this came the Church of England, of protestant belief. England did away with Catholicism and things began to change in England. But this was not the intention of King Henry, only the result of his lust for women and desire for an heir.
A woman named Anne Boleyn caught the kings eye. She was on the royal court, and refused to be intimate with the king until they were married. Boys have not changed over the years...even back then "the chase" worked great. After his divorce, he married Anne and tried to have children. But after years of trying and pregnancies, Anne only produced a daughter, Elizabeth I. Anne was accused of adultery, tried, thrown into jail and eventually beheaded at the Tower of London. He then went on to marry several more women including Jane Seymour who finally, after years of trying, gave him a son, Edward. She died in childbirth, but with his heir in place, King Henry was satisfied.
After Henry died, his young son Edward was made king for only 5 years before his death. He focused on improving the Church of England and making the country entirely Protestant. When Edward died, the next heir in line was Mary. They called her Bloody Mary because she decided to make the country Catholic once again and go against her father's ideas for the Church of England. She killed many Protestants and many religious changes were made. After her death, next in line was Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne came to power.
I think it is so interesting how King Henry, a tyrant and a lustful man focused his whole life on having a male heir. He only got Edward, and he only ended up reigning 5 years. His two daughters were the ones to make huge changes and be powerful rulers over England until the end of the "Tutor" line with the death of Elizabeth I.
Hampton Court had many different sections to it including bedrooms, kithens and the winery. There were apartments where not only the King slept and lived, but separate ones for his daughters other political leaders at the time. My very favorite part was seeing the acres and acres of gardens behind the house. We walked through the gardens for a long time and took tons of fun photos with the group we were with!
Next we headed to Charles darwin's home. I am not in the literature class here, but those that are read about Charles and
his wife Emma. They had a much greater appreciation for the home, but it was still neat to see where he lived and worked. We also got to see a ton of information on his theories as well.
We got on the bus exhausted from the day and slept the entire way home. It is amazing how traveling makes you so tired, and the roll of the bus puts you right to sleep...well we got home and decided to lay low and enjoy a night at home even though it was a Friday night. As you can tell...the festivities didn't last long and it was early to bed!
Fun Fact: Londoners are 36% more likely to have recently visited a historical site than any other city in Europe...
Here in London I have class 2 days a week, Tuesday&Thursday.
But we are constantly learning about the history that is ever where. Today's adventure took us to Southall, an area a little outside London...it felt like a whole different world!
After class, we all headed together on a train to this area full of Indian culture. The minute you step off the train you can smell the curry. We were given a few hours before dinner to explore the city and visit sites.
Our first stop?: A Hindu Temple.
This was not like any other temple/cathedral/mosque we have visited. We walked in and had to do several things. We removed our shoes and got into our stocking feet. We then had to take our scarves and over our hair and neck. We went upstairs where music was being played and sat cross legged on the floor. There were no chairs in the huge room, only people meditating or praying. It was neat to see the Hindu religion in action and the temple in use. We had a great time!
Next we walked back the other way through the city. It was just like I pictured it: markets and sketchy looking shops with all sorts of overwhelming trinkets displayed. There very very few normal stores and we constantly had to watch our things and what we were doing. Southall is known as a rough area if you are not careful, but it was fun to experience the different culture and interact with people from other areas of the world. We stopped at a market and bought 5 oranges for a pound. It worked out great because there were 5 of us walked around together. We stopped to peal our fruit and with juice running down our hands we ate while we explored!
After stopping at some shops we found what we were looking for: a place that did henna. We all wanted a henna tattoo, don't ask me why! Just for fun :)
We found a hair salon that did it for cheap. It was neat to watch them design things. We just let them go for it and they are super talented!
After we went and got henna done, we went straight to dinner. The entire group met up at a true Indian restaurant for true Indian food. We arrived late so we sat at a huge booth the 5 of us (Carly, Kinsey, Annie, Ramzi, and I). They kept bringing plate after plate of food out for us. Endless food with TONS to take home back to the center. We got to try all sorts of fun dishes, some very...interesting. Others were actually pretty good. We had fun eating one-handed letting our henna dry.
We left and headed for home walking in the pouring rain. I came home to a fun surprise on my doorstep which led to a fun girls night and talking late into the night! Oh I just love the girls here.
Another great day in London...or should I say Southall.
Happy Valentines Day!
This day always comes with mixed feelings, but whether you have a love or to you it is simply "singles awareness day", I hope you had a good one!
Well if you know my life story at all you know that I don't have a Valentine...so watching the flowers come to the door was difficult, but I was so excited for every girl who got something fun. Okay for those who don't know...I live with 36 other girl. Yes that means at least 8 to a room and LOTS of estrogen. This also means that there are lots of men back home thinking about these ladies, and I am lucky enough to be living with them...they are great. To my surprise, most of the girls have someone at home. So dozens and dozens of flowers arrived at the door and packages galore.
Despite the love in the air, I felt so loved as well by my family and friends. I have great friends back home and here and we made it a great day. I also got a package from my Mom and a letter from my grandpa, which made my day!
36 roses arrived addressed to "all the lovely ladies at 27 Palace Court"...the boys in the house pitched in to get us all one rose a piece :)
Our professors thought ahead and knowing that this was going to be an emotional "love" day they scheduled us to all be together. We got tickets for the Swan Lake Ballet!
We all had fun dressing up and getting ready together. The theme of the night seemed to be black and red (not surprising).
The last ballet I went to was the Nutcracker and it was yearsago. Well, ballet in London is very formal. Everyone gets all dolled up and excitement is in the air! The room is huge, but the seating is claustrophobic or "clausti" as my friends would say. There were no armrests and we were shoulder to shoulder with no room to even cross your legs.
The ballet started and after a half hour the curtain closes and the lights go up. Was it over? I think not. This proceeded to happen 4 times giving us 4 breaks so as you can imagine the ballet was not short. 3 1/2 hours to be exact!
It was long and we were tired by the time it was over, but it was a great night ending in lots of laughs and celebration over the loves in so many of the girls lives!
It was a great day in London. Probably the only Valentines I will ever spend in England, and it was one I will never forget! 
Scotland: one of the most beautiful countries in the world and one of the most amazing places I've ever been! Need I say more?!
This past week we traced through Scotland, had a total blast and some fun experiences so here it goes...
Wednesday:
We left at 7am and rode the tube with suitcases in hand to the train station. We were all so excited to ride a train instead of a bus. We loaded the train almost filling the entire car with just our group. It was a 5 hour ride to our final destination of Edinburgh, Scotland! Naturally... I slept almost the entire time. When I woke up the sun had come up and the views were gorgeous. Oh let me just tell you... We were told it was going to be absolutely freezing so we packed our warmest clothes and layered up. Luckily we experienced good weather. During the say it was sunny and at night though it was cool, it didn't rain! We saw the beach outside the window and it was gorgeous I could hardly stand it... The beach?...Scotland? What a fabulous combination. We got off the train and took our things down to the hostile we were going to be staying in... OK for those of you who read my previous post know that my track record with "shelter"...not so good! We were skeptical about staying in a hostile. The only hope we had was that BYU would not put us in an unsafe area. Let's jut say that our hostile was 100 times better than the Hotel De Hollande in Paris! It was big and clean and in a great part of town. It really changed my opinion of hostiles!
After we checked in we went straight to he Edinburgh castle and got to see the beauty of the city. Edinburgh is quite small with a fun main street called the Royal Mile! At the top is the castle on cliffs overlooking the valley! It was a little cloudy on Wednesday making the view gorgeous from the top. It made us all so excited to be there.
After taking lots of pictures and going through the different exhibits, we made our way back down the royal mile going through the different shops. We found a mill that showed you how they make kilts and blankets out of wool... One thing you have to understand is that Scotland places a huge emphasis on clans and family heritage. Each clan has a plaid an a family modo and you can get blankets, kilts, cups, key chains everything you could ever think of in your families plaid. I have heritage from Scotland and it was fun to get some Lindsay plaid from Scotland for my future home.
We ended in this tiny shop that was family owned and they couldn't have been nicer! The woman who helped us was named Stephanie and it was fun to chat with her. The Scottish are much warmer and like to talk and help much more than the English. It was nice to chat with someone who was genuinely interested in us and we got to hear all about their family business. It made me feel more at home. In London the only people we talk to are each other because no one is super friendly.
After shopping we went to catch some dinner at a pub that Stephanie recommended to us called Mitre. It was more of a restaurant atmosphere and the food was fabulous. We were able to sit and chat making more memories and boy were there lots of laughs!
We walked up and down the royal mile after that exploring the city! We "found" Waldo... two actually. There were 2 college aged boys dressed in white and red stripes. The funny thing was they had no clue who Waldo is...I guess it's an American thing.
We stopped at a local grocery store and got snacks so that we could go back to the hotel to eat and talk.
The end to the night: chatting in jammies, talking, reading magazines, and finding out my credit card number was taken back in England somewhere. Yes, I was officially broke with no access to money and 3 day to go until we arrived back in London. With the help of my mom (I will always need my mom) and the girls, the situation was resolved and I was covered by my sweet girlfriends the entire weekend.
Thursday:
Just when you think things couldn't get any better, they do! And no I am not being sarcastic. Thursday was such a fun oh man, so many memories!!
The day started off with breakfast at the hotel. It was a true Scottish breakfast with hagas (meat all ground together served in lamb stomach) but luckily they also had cereal and toast :)
It was a beautiful morning (sweatshirt weather) and super sunny! We went to hike to King Arthur's seat! The group split and I stayed with the one thy just wanted to explore the valley! It was nice to sit in the sun and enjoy people watching as locals walked by with their dogs. Side note: It is interesting to see that there are different breeds of dogs here in Europe. Some are cute like the dog below and some are just creeper and scare all of us. But unlike the US none of the dogs are ever on leashes.
After our stroll down the valley, we decided to take a look at the graveyard and see the old headstones then grab some lunch!
Lunch took much longer than expected because we ate at the Elephant House. Not ringing a bell? Me either it's okay don't worry. The Elephant House is a cafe downtown and we learned it was "the birthplace of Harry Potter". JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books there in a certain corner and visits quite often. Yes she spent time in England and the English claim her as being from their country, but she is actually Scottish. She wrote a majority of her books a she ate in the cafe. On the wall there was a list of Dumbledores army...I was number 126 :) we spent a ton of time taking pictures and looking around. It's exciting to be able to say I've been there.
We all met back up to take a historical tour of the city but with the cost and time we decided against it, but we had fun taking pictures in the gift shop...
We headed down the street to visit Stephanie and get more souvenirs from their shop. It was good to give her the business and we ended up hearing more of her stories.
Annie was playing at the local theatre and the majority of the group decided that they were going to go see it. Liz, Kinsey, Ramzi and I decided to explore more of the city instead...little did we know it would be one of the most fun nights thus far.
Here in the UK we crave several things: popcorn, goldfish, an Mexican food. So when we heard that there was Mexican food down the street we made a b-line! It tasted so good to eat some Mexican food. After it was over we couldn't figure out whether it was the Mexican or just the spice in the food. Everything is just so bland in England! We had a fun chatting about our best and worst date stories... Hilarious! We were dying laughing!
After dinner we were told to go check put a dessert place called chocolate soup! Interesting huh? We go some dessert (had to it was just such a fun experience I would never have again) and it came with a "shot" of chocolate. Well naturally we weren't going to eat it so we had to find some other way to use it. So we put our 2nd grade thinking caps on and this is what we came up with...
After we cleaned up and took some pictures we headed back to our hostile and bundled up because it was getting late and cold outside. We decided to take the Edinburgh ghost tour in the city. It was an hour and a half long and we spent 45 minutes outside in the city and 45 under ground in the caverns.
During the black plague, Edinburgh was hit hard and to contain the disease, they built the city you see today on top of the old city and left the rats (who were spreading the disease) and the sick to die underground. Later they old rooms were cleaned out and used for the homeless, smuggling and drinking. The caverns caused so many problems that the government filled them in and they were not again discovered until the 1980's. They began giving historical tours until people started having experiences with spirits. The tour involved only those experiences that had happened in recent years.
The first 45 minutes were interesting and not too bad. We learned about city torture and how it was run. It was the time in the caverns that freaked the heck out of us. Thank heavens we had a boy with us! We were led by our tourguide and all he had was a candle. At one point he blew it out and we couldn't see our hand in front of our face! It was super dark and 45 minutes seemed like hours.
We didn't let our scary fun night ruin the end of the evening. We saw a place with a stone heart and took some fun shots of us.
Some Scottish boys insisted on getting in a picture with us! It was so fun talking with boys. There are only a handful here and we were laughing so hard at the boys we met. They were super nice!
We tried to go over to the graveyard behind the Elephant house where Tom Riddle (Voldamort) is "buried". We were not successful seeing that it was 12am and it was closed up, but I thought about Lindsey all day seeing so many Harry Potter sites because she just loves it so much.
We walked home so happy about the fun night we had and were so excited to see the girls that had gone to Annie, but when we got home everyone was asleep so we had a much needed early to bed night!
Friday:
We had to get up early, shower, and eat because our plan was to get on a bus to Stirling for the rest of the trip! It was an hour ride to the small city of Stirling, Scotland, but we made a detour stop at New Lanark.
This is a mill city where cotton was picked and uses to create string and eventually fabric. We had a 4 hour tour of the New Lanark mill, shop and took a funny little ride that was much like Peter Pan (in Disneyland). We learned a lot and enjoyed a stroll up toward the waterfalls in the area after the tour.
We drove into Stirling and checked in our hostile Goethe night... Let's just say this one was not like the one in Edinburgh. It was tiny and not the cleanest, but hey it was an adventure and still better than hotel de hollande so it's all good! We went to see the castle in Stirling which was a little disappointing. :( not so much to see, but hey we can day we have been there.
Stirling is a tiny town and the options for the night were very limited. We decided to get food at this place called Frankie & Bennys. It was a cross between red robin and tgi Fridays... Reminded me if home. We the moved on to our next activity which again reminded me of home.. The movies! We caught a 7:30pm showing of "Gnomeo and Juiet". It was supposed to be for kids, but we had fun feeling like we were in te US again because going to the movies is so normal. It was a fun show to see. We wondered if it plays in America because there were so many English things about it. It would be interesting to see the difference between it here and back home. --movie in the UK, check.
We were exhausted by the time we walked back home in the rain, we were ready for early bed and we quickly went to bed because our sleeping conditions were not the greatest (to put it nicely).
Saturday (today):
This morning we got up and had some toast for breakfast and quickly left for the Wallace Monument. This is in remembrance of William Wallace that was an important leader protecting Scotland. He united the Scottish tribes under him to fight the English to keep their freedom. He won tons of huge battles but was eventually captured and killed leaving Scotland under English reign.
After hiking 264 stairs and up a hill to see the view and learn about William Wallace, we headed for the train station. We had a little wait to get some food and then take our 7 hour ride home...we were stopped and delayed for a full 2 hours. Lets just say we were plenty ready to get off that train by the time we pulled into the station...
It is always so good to go away, but it's also nice to come home. Scotland was one of my favorite places I've ever been. I loved it so much! It will be fin traveling to Ireland and Wales in just 2 weeks. Wow time is flying and we are so busy...
This coming week: Swan Lake Ballet, the London temple, Hampton Court, Darwin's house, and Wimbledon!
We are doing so many things... This really is my history in the making...
