That's All, London!

Well friends, this is it... My grand and awesome adventures have come to an end. Today is my last day in London. It is a day full of mixed emotions! I think the closest I came to crying was when I had to tell the lady at the chocolate store I was leaving for America tomorrow and would never be returning again. It's been a rough few days, full of laughter and tears. I've never been more bipolar in my life! :)  I just wanted to write my one last post, to give London a final farewell... in a short 15 hours from now, I will boarding a plane headed for home. And though I'm confident I will miss this city, I can not deny that it has been the absolute best time of my life! An experience I will never ever forget!

I have learned so much, and made so many life-long friends since being here in London. So many incredible people who have touched my life in so many ways! They will never be forgotten, and forever loved!

There are so many things I am so excited for upon going home! And here they are:

1) My family... I've missed their jokes, their teasing, and just them in general.

2) My favorite person in this world... Eric Hutchinson! I pretty much love him!

3) Food. I'm sure at this point, anything will taste amazing!

4) My closet full of clothes! Cute ones! Ones that I will actually enjoy wearing!

5) My shoes....

6) My very own bed, in my very own room!

7) A warm shower. I love that Americans know what warm means...

8) Driving in a car, on the right side of the road.

9) My friends! (yes, surprise! I actually do have some... haha)

10) Seeing my new niece for the first time, and getting to play with my adorable nieces and nephews!

I can't believe that this is actually happening.... I feel like I'm living in a dream! It's so bizarre. Where has the time gone!? I guess it's true, what they say: time flies when you're having fun! And believe me... I've had fun! It has been the best four months of my life, and it's been a blast! I would not trade this experience for the world! I don't regret a single thing. And I am looking forward to the future and what it holds in store for me! So many great things are going to happen this summer! I'm sure I"ll keep you all posted! :)

Thanks for reading about my lame life, I hope you've enjoyed reading my stories, as much as I've enjoyed telling them! Thank you London, for the experience of a lifetime! I love you, and I will never forget you!

Until next time... over and out!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.... or if you'd rather: The Things I Will Miss and Not Miss About London

The Good: (things I will miss)
*My London Lovies!!! These are my roomies... just to clarify. They are the most amazing group of girls I have ever met in my life, They have changed my life in so many ways, and it will definitely be sad to say goodbye to these great friends! Thanks for the memories girls! :)
*My wonderful Professors, and the awesome London Classes. Best semester of my life!
*The gorgeous-ness of this great city! Everything about it is incredible! The buildings, the people, the streets, and most of all the parks! I wish America knew the secret to having awesome parks like London does! They are not even comparable... London dominates!
*The food... NOT the centre food of course! haha  But the wonderful cafes and pubs. So yummy!
*Markets. I have become a market junkie. I'm pretty sure I could go to markets every single day! They are the best!
*Yogurt covered banana chips. Enough said. They are heaven!
*The shopping!!!  I'm sad already, and I haven't even left yet!
*The rain... only because it creates the absolute best puddle-jumping worthy puddles! :)
*The sunshine. I'm sure that I will be going home to snow. Yuck!
*The history!
*"Please mind the gap between the train and the platform"
*The accents!

The Bad: (things I won't miss)
*The smokers. I can not even begin to express how much I hate walking down the street, and getting giant puffs of smoke in the face. It kills me!
*Nasty old men in speedos laying in the park...
*Dogs. I hate them. And they are everywhere!
*Having to dodge puke on the sidewalks at night outside of the pubs.
*Being hit on by nasty drunk men!
*The lack of personal space that Londoners have... I'm sick of people being all up in my business when standing in line, riding the lift, or while on the tube.
*Which reminds me, I will not miss the tube... It is dirty, nasty, and germy!
*The loud screeching brakes of every single bus in this city.
*The 66 stairs that I must climb multiple times every day.

The Ugly: (he bitter-sweet feeling)
Where in the world has the time gone!? My time here in London is limited... only 6 more days! CRAZY!!!  So many things to do, and so little time. haha  I am so sad to be saying farewell to the greatest adventure of my life! London has been absolutely fabulous, and there are many things I will miss. However, I am also very excited to get home! I have so many amazing people waiting for me back in Utah, and a very exciting summer to look forward to! :) Needless to say, I'm having tons of mixed emotions right now... I can't decide if I'm more sad or excited to be leaving! Either way, this has been the best 4 months of my life! I don't regret a single thing, and I loved every single minute of it! So... maybe it's not all the ugly afterall.  :)

Change Your Life

Imperial War Museum

Tuesday, April 5, I had the opportunity to take a little visit to the Imperial War Museum of London. And can I just say... it was incredible! Normally when you hear these kinds of stories, you hear all about the cool airplanes, submarines, and war tanks that people saw there, or about the cool exhibit on the best kept government secrets... This however, is a different story. For although all of those things were amazing and spectacular, the thing that stood out most to me, was found in the Holocaust Exhibit. Though it was tucked away in the small reaches of the basement corner, I feel like it was perhaps the most historically important room this museum had to offer. I absolutely loved it! It went through the entire story of the Nazi Party and the rise of Adolf Hitler, all the way to the Jewish persecution, concentration camps, and then the ending of the war. It was phenomenal. I have to admit, I usually have a hard time with this period of history. It makes me sick to my stomach to see those pictures, and hear those stories. But there was something about experiencing it first hand, that changed me. Looking at the real artifacts from this period of history really hit me. The wall of shoes... knowing that those shoes were actually worn by innocent Jews in a concentration camp, really touched me. I honestly think this is one of the most important lessons to be learned from history. The lesson that we must learn to get along, We can not afford to let anything like this happen again. And we have no excuse for it to either. Although we can't undo the past, we can still prevent the future. Acceptance and toleration is key! As I was walking out of the museum, I found this large piece from the Berlin Wall, with the words "change your life" painted on it. That is the ultimate lesson we should learn from history! If we don't learn from the past, and change the way we are living our lives, we are bound to repeat those mistakes of the past. So do it... change you life! Make this world a better place!

England v. Ghana

Perhaps one of the best nights of my life was this past week, on Tuesday March 29, 2011.

This was the day that we ventured into the far reaches of the city, and found ourselves standing outside of the Wembley Stadium... Most incredible building I think I have ever seen... it was seriously huge. There was over 80,000 people attending this game! And the field was absolutely beautiful!

And the game began!!!  England vs. Ghana! And let me just tell you now... I was torn! I couldn't decide who I wanted to cheer for! I felt like I should cheer for England, maybe just because I love it, and because I have lived here for the last 4 months of my life... but then I felt like I needed to show my devotion to Ghana. It's not like my little brother is going to be living there for two years or anything...  But in the end, I made the decision to wear my lucky green shoes in honor of Ghana! And of course, it worked!!!

England scored during the first half, and Ghana was struggling the whole way through... I started to doubt myself! But alas, the lucky shoes pulled through!  :) Ghana scored in the last two minutes of the game, tying the match! And it was insane! I have never seen anything like it! Fans were going absolutely crazy! I loved it! We had so much fun cheering and yelling, and just watching the action down on the field.

I loved every minute of it! And would definitely do it again... European football, you have my heart!

"Mr. Rutley... that's for your sword!"

Tonight, we had the opportunity to travel down to Westminster, and hear from David Rutley... the one and only LDS member of Parliament. He was hilarious! We taught us tons of awesome facts about the way things are run within the walls of Parliament. My personal favorite was his story about his first day on the job...

He walked in, and was lead by one of the guards, to the cloak room. As he was hanging up his sword, he noticed a bright pink loop of material attached to the hanger. Confused, and very curious, he whispered to the guard, "What is this fabric here for?" The guard got the look on his face, making him feel very stupid for having asked, and said in reply, "Mr. Rutley... that's for your sword! You hang it there so that it doesn't get in the way of your work throughout the day!" As if everyone should have known that!  haha 

 But he was a great inspiration to me, as he encouraged us to be our best, and live to our fullest potential. He told us that the greatest things we will do with our lives, will be done now.

He concluded with a fantastic quote that said:

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.”

He reminded me that it's always really important to follow your dreams. He said: "Dream big, and set outrageous goals for yourselves... You'll never achieve anything if you don't." Always remember that no matter what we do with our lives, we are the ones with the power to do it. And we can do anything we could ever want to do and accomplish. So get out there, and make it happen!  :)

Shakespeare, Shakespeare! Wherefore art thou Shakespeare?

Stratford Upon Avon

This past week, we had the opportunity to venture off into the Greater London area of the UK, and explore the birthplace and home of the great William Shakespeare!

We first were able to go and visit his home. It was really pretty, and we had tons of fun! It was so awesome to walk through the house and listen to the tour guides tell little stories about him and his family. He had quite the life, I tell you what!  haha  But it was indeed a great learning experience, and there were things I learned about Shakespeare I had never even heard before! So it was great!

We then were able to conclude our adventure by attending the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of KING LEAR! And it was amazing! I surprised myself.... and I ended up really loving it! The acting was incredible, and even though the play was a little long, and the story was a little strange, it completely pulled me in! I had a blast!

And as much as I may hate to admit it... I may find myself eventually looking at some of Shakespeare's other works... who knows? I might like it just as much as I loved this one!  :)

Welcome to No Man's Land...

We set off on our last grand European adventure together, on Monday, March 21. We were greeted by our beloved coach driver Glen, and loaded up! We then had a two hour coach ride to Dover. This is where we were to catch a ferry to take us across the English Channel… remember how something always has to go wrong? This trip was no exception. We arrived, only to discover that our ferry had been cancelled due to technical difficulties… great! But because we had already checked in and passed the gates, there was no turning back. So in the parking lot we sat! For two hours… sounds like fun, huh? Haha  No worries, we kept ourselves entertained with my handy dandy deck of Irish cards! It’s a lot harder to play cards on a coach than you think… It’s very tricky business! We finally got a spot on the next ferry, and the bus just drove straight on! It was pretty cool… then we all got off the bus, and continued our card game extravaganza on the ferry. This was my first time on a real boat… and let me just say, we don’t get along. Haha But we finally made it to the other side of the ocean, and continued our drive until we reached: BRUGES, BELGIUM!

Bruges is a magical place… the end. Seriously, it is so adorable, and it has the most open and friendly atmosphere, I absolutely loved it! So we got to Bruges, and checked into our hotel. Then we were set free to explore! So we wandered around the cute little cobblestone roads, and passed the cutest little cottages and shops you’ve ever seen! We just enjoyed the evening sun as we walked, and then we found the river… so gorgeous! So of course, we took a boat tour! It was so much fun. I loved just sitting there in the sun, with the cool breeze blowing, floating my way through the city. AHH! I just loved it!

After our ride, we went and found us some ever so famous Belgian Friets! And oh my goodness… they were soooo good! Best fries ever! On our way back to the hotel, we were absolutely drawn into a chocolate shop… never had I seen anything more delicious in my entire lifetime.

The next morning, we all walked over to The ChocoStory Museum…. Or if you prefer, the museum of chocolate!  J It was really awesome. Not going to lie. Not only because we got a free sample of legit Belgian chocolate, but because we learned the entire history of chocolate! And because I’m such a history nerd, and a chocolate lover… it was fantastic!

After that, we just wandered for a while. Me and Kaylee and Ramzi just went and sat in the city square, and soaked up the sun! It was absolutely amazing! Then we went and got us some legit Belgian Waffles…. Oh my. I about died. Best waffle I have ever had in my entire life. It absolutely blows my mind as to how they make them taste so delicious… I never knew it was possible! Haha  

 Our next adventure took us to the city of Ieper, where we attended the In Flander’s Field Museum. This is a World War 1 museum, and it was incredible! They gave us a little ticket at the beginning that had a name on it. The name of a soldier… and as we went through the museum, there were little booths that you could scan your ticket on, and it would tell you a bit of the story about that soldier. And at the end, you learn what happened to them. My man lost his leg in one of the small battles, and as he was being taken to the medical tent, he died. It was really a cool experience! I spent almost two hours in there… unfortunately, it had to end, and we continued our journey until we arrived in Amiens, France.

After checking into the hotel, me, Kaylee and Ramzi went out and explored the town. The only down side… nobody in this town speaks English. Hooray. Haha  Needless to say, we had a great time trying to buy groceries at the store! J But we eventually figured things out, and went on our way. The next morning, we ventured over to the cathedral… which just happens to be the largest cathedral in all of Europe! How cool is that!?

So after wandering around inside there for a little bit, we went out and walked along the river for a bit before we had to get back on the bus. One of my favorite parts of this entire trip was here, on the bus, driving through the countryside of France. I loved it! There were endless green fields, stretched as far as you could see… and seriously, about every 200 yards or so, there was a cemetery… tall white headstones surrounding a big white cross. They were everywhere. Close to the road, off in the distance… and along the edges of the fields, you could see piles of old war things like helmets, bullets, and shrapnel that the farmers dig up each spring. It was such an incredible sight! We made a stop at the Newfoundland National War Memorial, and visited the battle field of the Somme battle, the largest World War 1 battle. It was awesome!

We got to walk around the trenches, and listen to the stories of the battle. It was so cool… I had never really been a huge fan of WW1 history, but I honestly think that has changed! It was so amazing to actually be here in these countries, learning about this kind of history, and being able to actually see the real effects that it has had. It’s amazing!

I absolutely loved this trip! And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. J Belgium definitely wins the prize here! It was amazing... I’ll give it a close third place on the list of favorites!