Last day in London! For now...

Today was our last day in London for the study abroad trip. I will be back with my parents at the end of my trip so I am not too disappointed but it is still kind of sad. I have really enjoyed my time here and living at the London center. Today we had art class first where we worked on collages. I am not sure about the collages I worked on today but maybe when I finish them I will post pictures on here. Then I ran to grab Kababs for lunch with my friend. Kababs are kinda weird open pita sandwiches sort of. Its hard to describe I guess but it was pretty good. After lunch we had Humanities class where we talked about some of wordsworths poems and writings that we were assigned to read. After this I went with my friends to primark to get a carry on size duffel bag because thats the size the professors wanted us to have for our travel around England for the next two weeks and I only had a large suitcase. We get to leave some of our stuff here and so I am leaving my large suitcase full of stuff here. Tomorrow we will be heading off to Stonehenge first and we will end the day in Bath. After primark, I went home and took a nap since I didn't get much sleep last night and when I woke up it was time to get ready for dinner. After dinner we went off to fro yo for the last time at our favorite place nearby and it was delicious. After fro yo I packed up all of my stuff for tomorrow and now I am heading to bed. TTFN!

 Last view of Big Ben with friends

 The street towards the London center

 My three bodyguards, get it?

Frae fro yo! so delicious!

Gardens, Movies, Food, Laundry, Craziness!

So today we had our road trip with a coach bus. The day started off pretty well and we got to the first garden, Sissinghurst with little problem. It was a pretty garden but also a pretty small one. We ate some food there and then got back on the bus. On the way to our next stop which was Darwin's house we had a lot of trouble. I think the bus driver got a little lost and then we had to do a U turn and go down really narrow roads and there was lots of jerkiness so it was an uncomfortable ride. Darwin's house was pretty cool. It was interesting to learn more about him. Some cool things I learned about him were that he made a pretty legit stair slide for his kids and he made a pro/con list to see if he should get married. After darwin's house we got back on the bus and headed back to the center. When we got to the center I immediately left with my friends to go get food at this Portuguese place nearby that is called Nando's. It was delicious food! I got the medium spicy saucy on my chicken pita and it was delicious. I even tried a little bit of their extra hot sauce and it was pretty good too. After dinner we got some fat free fro yo and headed back to the center where did homework and watched some Audrey Hepburn movies. Now I am just waiting for my laundry to be done before I go to bed. It has been a little crazy doing laundry here since everyone wants to get their laundry done right before we leave on our little two week traveling time. Well TTFN!

 My hair is getting so long here that I can put it into a bun

 Pretty view of some of Sissinghurst from the top of the tower in the gardens

 My friends asleep on the bus before the crazy bus driving started happening, this is usually what most of us end up doing whenever we are on the buses

Me in front of the greenhouse at darwin's house

Class and Collages

 So today most of the day was spent doing class work. We had humanities and the environment class first this morning where we had a lot of philosophical discussions and then we had arts class where we worked on collages. It was kind crazy to learn to make collages. You had to be ok with leaving things messy and also ok with tearing up what you had made. I had a little bit of lunch in between classes and then after class I went with my friends to get some really good frozen yogurt from this place just down the street. After fro yo I worked on homework until it was time for me to do kitchen duty. Tonight we had delicious chicken curry with couscous. After dinner clean up I went to Primark with my friend and bought some sweaters because I am worried about being even colder than I feel now when I head up to northern England. After this I did home, finished a movie with my friends and now I am going to bed. TTFN!

 My friend Elizabeth and I in our matching rain jackets, together we are two pound note

My first attempt at making a collage

Churchill War Rooms and Delicious food

Hey sorry I didn't post yesterday. It wouldn't upload for some reason yesterday so I just gave up and went ot bed. Yesterday started out by going out to the the Churchill War Rooms which was really cool. It was the underground station for Churchill and other military officers during World War Two. There was a whole part focused just on Churchill. He had a lot of cool quotes including:

"Look at the Swiss! They have enjoyed peace for centuries and what have they produced? The cuckoo clock!"

"Never trust a man who does not have a single redeeming vice"

"Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm"

"Those Greeks and Romans, they are so overrated. They only said everything first. I've said just as good things myself. But they got in before me."

"The great thing is to get the true picture, whatever it is"

and of course there are a lot more than I am sure you have heard but those were just some that I wrote down while I was there. Also one thing that I learned about him that I thought was really fun was that he used to put stuffed animals in his bookcase to mark where he took a book. Because he liked stuffed animals I decided it's probably ok for me to like stuffed animals too. Anyways, it was really cool to be in the war rooms and try to imagine what it might have been like during World War II. Also it is really interesting to see the perspective of the war outside of the American context and how the UK felt about America joining the war.
After the war rooms we went to a pub to get a lovely lunch of roast of the day which was a repeat from earlier in the trip but it is just so good that I couldn't help repeating it. After lunch we went back and did homework and I took a little nap and then did some more homework. Then I went out and grabbed a little something for dinner and came back and watched some of a movie with my friends while eating popcorn all in all it was a pretty good day but I am getting a little sad that we will be leaving London soon. Fortunately for me I know I will be coming back to London for a little bit with my parents at the end of the trip. TTFN! I will probably write again about my day today later tonight.


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 My friend Aubree and I in matching shirts that we got from Primark

 Military style in the the war rooms

 Another good Winston Churchill quote

 Dressing up like Winston Churchill!

 I remembered this sign from last time we were there and I once again am still confused what switch they mean. Are they promoting conserving energy? I wish there was a big red switch next to it. 

 It was a gray shoe day on the underground

Beautiful roast of the day from the pub

Sunday Adventures

So today I woke up a little late so I raced to get ready and grab breakfast before we had to head out the door. We caught the train we needed to get to church just in time and all got nicely settled into the train. Unfortunately for us we got a little too nicely settled on to the train and we didn't notice we had come to our stop until one girl looked up and noticed it. This was problematic because despite our hurry only half of us were able to get off the train at the stop before the doors closed. So I made it off the train but the other half of our group was forced to go to the next stop and then get off and wait for the next train to come to take them back. Fortunately we had planned time to hopefully make us early to church so we were all able to make it there on time. Once we were separated though we realized quite how inconvenient it is not to have working phones. We kind of just had to assume what was the most logical thing to do that the other half of us would probably do. Anyways we all made it to church on time and church was great. I must admit there are definitely different experiences you have in a newer ward than you do with a quite old ward like one in Utah. Very different discussions are brought up and things that seem natural to me are still getting organized. But it has definitely been a wonderful experience to attend that ward and now our time there is over since next week on Sunday we will be traveling around the English countryside. We leave London on Friday and I am definitely having bitter sweet feelings about it. I love being in London and I think I have finally gotten used to it but I am also looking forward to the other traveling we will be doing. So after I got back from church I had a snack and talked with friends and then watched the Young Victoria movie on netflix before I had to go help with dinner. Dinner was meat pies which I wasn't sure if I would like but I actually really loved them. Dinner clean up took a while and then it was time for the talent show. My friend and I (two pound note, read below for more description) sang Falling Slowly from the musical once while one of the professors kids played the guitar and another student played the piano. It was pretty fun and some one recorded it so I will have to find that recording so everyone can hear it. Lots of people in our group performed funny things for the talent show and it was quite an enjoyable experience. After this we watched a video as a group that was called something like "Lakes and Tides" which was this documentary like thing about a guy who does nature art. It was kind of cool but also kind of boring after awhile but there was popcorn provided so that did help. After this I attempted to facetime with my family which didn't work out too well but still it was nice to see them for a little bit. Now I am heading to bed so I can get lots done tomorrow. Sorry I don't have any pictures for today. I will try to maybe get some pictures from the talent show for tomorrow. TTFN!

Froyo and great company

Today I slept in for a little bit and then finished writing my essay. After this I got ready and went and got a nice sandwich for lunch from a nearby sandwich and soup place. After lunch I edited my essay until I felt it was good enough with some help from my friend and my mom at home. Then I went to a cool mall here called whitelys with my friends but we didn't really end up buying anything. Next we went out to dinner at this mexican place here called tortilla to try and suppress our craving for cafe rio. It didn't really work but the food was pretty good. After this we went to the iconic Abbey Road and took some pictures and then to this park with a beautiful view of the London skyline. We stopped at a delicious frozen yogurt place on the way back and finished off the day just hanging out and watching megamind. TTFN!

 Found Waverly place on our walk but where are the wizards? (reference to disney channel show)

 Beautiful view of London skyline

Even the microwave popcorn bags here are cool!

Two Pound Note

Today started out with breakfast of course but I had to get breakfast ready and cleaned up for everyone this time since I am on the meal crew. After this I got ready and went on the last assignment walk for my London walks class with my friends. We walked past big ben, downing street, buckingham palace and lots of other cool historic things on this walk and we picked up some hot chocolate since it was quite cold and rainy today. After the walk we grabbed a sandwich meal deal from tesco and went back to the centre to eat it. At the center my friend and I started formulating plans for our future accapella group which currently just consists of the two of us but our group name is now Two Pound Note. Its note like notes that we sing and a note that you pay with like a bill and two because there are two of us and there is no such thing as a two pound note (although I think it would be convenient considering all the 2 pound coins I end up carrying around). We have been singing And so it Goes by Billy Joel and Falling Slowly which is sung in the play Once in harmonies around the centre and I think we actually sound pretty good we may perform one of them for the talent show we might be having next sunday at the centre. After singing around and trying to find more  song harmonies with my friend we went over to portabello road to do some shopping. We both made some great purchases I think and then I had to get back for dinner duty. They have a very ineffective method of cleaning the dishes currently at the centre so hopefully they will fix that when they renovate the center which they are doing after our group leaves. I feel like we just got to the centre and already in a week we will be packing up to travel around England. After dinner I worked on my essay some and watched a movie on my computer. Well TTFN! 

 Great view of Big Ben

 London Eye

 Downing street, home of the prime minister

 In front of Buckingham Palace

Our acapella group name and symbol, can you see the 2 and the pound symbol?