feed the birds

St. Pauls is INCREDIBLE! we had a guided tour through the whole building and learned about who the monuments are about like Cornwallis and Nelson, and learned a bit of the history like the fire ad rebuilding process by christopher Wren etc. It's gigangtic. and it's it's beautiful! we hiked the 500+ stairs to the top of the dome and the view is amazing. you can see all of london and what a cool city. 4realz. the architecture and all the history which we then learned more about at the london museum. this was by far my least favorite museum yet - compared to any of the others it was just kinda lame. some good stuff, but i kept waiting for the "good stuff" that never really came...
so that was all on a big field trip with the whole group. but then i went out with my roommates and got tickets to see les mis on sat matinee!!! so excited. i love that show so much. nick jonas is in it - i'm skeptical about that bigtime so he better not ruin the show.
home for dinner - on time i might add - rice adn gravy, rolls and salad. delicious.
then jaqcuie clark and i went to the tower bridge and walked across, found a free concert at the city hall park and listened for a while. then we went and sat on the wall across from the bridge and just wrote in our journals for a while. i'm so far behind. this blog is my only record of my time...
the sunset, the bridge lit up, we walked back across it, and met the nicest security guard who told us the bridge was about to open to make way for a boat! so we saw that, and then talked to the guard some more. and this is the hilarious story that he told - though it might not be as funny not in his wonderful accent
about 10 years ago when clinton was in office, he was working the bridge, and they were supposed to lift it at 1030, but because the boat got there early, and he wanted to go home, he opened it early. little did he know that at that moment president clinton was crossing the bridge with his separate car of secret service men, and the two cars got separated on opposite sides of the bridge when it opened. well then there was a big fuss and he ended up on the front page of the suns paper with a caption that said "diplomatic answers" in an article called "tower bridge splits up convoy"
peopel here are soooo nice and love to talk to you and here about where you're from and what you're doing here and tell you about themselves. i love it.
i also love clark and jacquie. they are so nice. definitely going to be my bffs here. and maybe forever. we didn't really do that much tonight, but it was still one of my favorite nights out in london.

wimbledon

today we went to wimbledon! Well, among many other things. but this was by far the grandest of my adventures today.
We took the tube all the way out there and met the nicest fellow who lives there who gave us directions and chatted with us about how he prefers nyc - crazy. we made it there, discovered that it cost 12 pounds and that we had to hurry to the ticket tent which closed in just a few minutes, we ran - and were there 3 minutes before 8, but they w
ere closing then and wouldn't sell us tickets. so we decided to walk around the perimeter. little did we know this extends at least 200 miles around, or that's certainly what it felt like. it was so much fun though, we chatted with the guards at every gate (though no one would let us in...) and took ridiculous picture and got ourselves completely lost. when we finally asked someone where the tube was he said "what tube?! you're at least 40 minutes away from any tube stop." so we walked back, more making friends with a police man and some more locals along the way. so we didn't actually get in - we might go again tomorrow - but we had an awesome time!
today i also went to the V&A museum to do an assignment for my jane austen class though I wish I could have stayed waaay longer. I'll be back there for sure. and then to the national portrait gallery to do some more assignments. hung out at trafalgar square, sitting on some statue, talking to someone from birmingham or something like that. people here are so FRIENDLY! when was the last time i had a conversation with a complete stranger for 5 minutes? it's amazing.
I love it.
I love LONDON.

ps, please read this entry in a british accent. I've been speaking (and thinking) in a rather poor one all day. I really can't stop....

homework.

soooo I guess i had kinda thought it wasn't really like going to school here... but as it turns out, it is. I just did reading for my classes for like, the last 4 hours. and have five projects to do by this week and two papers to write. Granted, the projects are stuff like go and find a certain exhibit at the V&A or the national portrait gallery and write a response or something fun, but still, it's going to be a busy semester.

I love Jacqui. she's my favorite. we had so much fun today at H&M looking at some totally wild styles, and then wandering all around to get to the british museum to see the elgin marbles and the rosetta stone before we had to hurry home for dinner. SO cool. we really just scratched the surface of that huge museum. going back there for sure.

Also got my ward assignment and we had a fireside from someone who lived through england during WWII, which was interesting.

I really wanted to switch out of the jane austen class, but i figure if I've already read and bought the books, I can stick it out. So i really hope I don't hate it....

speakers corner

it's sunday - although it doesn't feel like my typical sunday - I think in large part due to the fact that i didn't fall into a coma for most of the day.... I am not going to sleep away my time here! so we got up and went to the hyde park ward today which they say is really different from the other wards in London because there were a ton of tourists, and because it's in the middle of London, the real members are all upper class folks. it was still really cool to see because it was so diverse - the choir sang and it was awesome to hear 30 people from all around the world singing 'come follow me' - we are all brothers and sisters in the gospel.

after church we wandered over through hyde park to speakers corner where we heard some very different kinda preaching than we heard at church! these guys were all really really radical standing on their soap boxes, and it was so confrontational and really just kind of crazy. really fun to listen to for a bit, but they didn't convince me that america was a communist organization or that jesus was the same person as moses, though i heard both of those things.... I think i might just jump up on a soap box next week and preach me some gospel!

what a day.

You know when you see a commercial and the hamburger looks huge, and the lettuce looks so crisp and fresh and the beef is juicy etc. etc. and by the end of those 30 seconds you’re so convinced that it must be the best burger on earth that you go out and pay six bucks for one… and then it tastes just like a normal old burger?

Well I had this awful fear in my gut that London was that hamburger. That all the hype surrounding it was just that – hype; that the postcards were touched up and exaggerated; that people’s memories of their visits grew as they bragged about their adventures.

But here’s the truth: It’s all true!!!

London is this incredible, beautiful, unbelievable city! We got around today a lot, but more than just run through museums or even start to master the underground (both of which we did), I feel like I got to know this city so much better from tonight’s activity which was: watching the world cup game at a little pub. This was the first time all day that I didn’t feel like a tourist, but like I actually lived here. We made friends with all of the other people in the pub and though they obviously knew that we were Americans, we were all friends. USA versus Ghana. We lost, tragically. But all the Ghana supporters were very kind and gave us pats on the back and I didn’t even really care that we lost. and you know, usa may have lost, but watching it in an english pub made up for it!

Now I just want England to win….

Today I also:

Made friends

Got sunburned

Rode a bus

Went tubing

Ate at wagga mammas

Formed the red bench club

Went to the national gallery

Stood in a huge crowd near the changing of the guard, though I admit – I saw nothing

Went to Coventry Gardens

Got a blister

Went to Harrods

Changed my money into colorful monopoly type money

Wore myself out BIGtime… time for bed. Church bright and early! Goodnight beautiful world

Just Touched Down in London Towne

what a flight! I actually loved it. It was really long, i sat next to a really smelly boy who didn't speak English, and i was in the middle section with no window to lean on... but despite all that, it was great! the flight attendants were really nice, i had my own free tv and I watched valentines day which I thought would be incredibly dumb... and it was, but it had taylor lautner and was kind of funny... and dinner was delicious and there were tons of drinks and plenty of water etc. and the coolest part was that the sun went down and it got dark and then like, 3 hours later somebody opened their window and the sun was up! and it was morning across the ocean! So I didn't really get a lot of sleep, but I took a little nap at the center and I feel pretty good. Johnos right about the whole jet lag thing being a myth. plus isn't it awesome that I crossed the entire ocean in one night??

When I got to the airport I couldn't find whitney who I was going to share a taxi with, so after I waited for a while, I headed out on my own, opting for the cheapest mode of transportation instead and just navigating the underground here with my luggage. turned out not to be too hard - I only got lost when I came up from the underworld and got mixed up on my east and west (how on earth do people keep track with no mountains to guide them?) which was promptly corrected by the nicest man with the cutest accent who said: little darlin', i hate to tell you but you're going the complete wrong way you poor dear.

I mean I guess I knew it was coming, but everyone has an accent here!! it's awesome. and cool.

i went exploring with hannah in kensington park and saw the palace and sat around and watched people etc.

and so i guess I'm really here!

Passport? Check.

I'm sitting at my airport terminal right now. 3 hours early. there's no way I am going to miss this flight...
and so my adventure begins!!

Mom told me to always keep my money in a pouch under my shirt
Andrew told me to watch money exchange rates and take lots of pictures
Lauren said to send her a postcard
Stephany told me to watch out for their Chinese food
Dani told me to catch myself an English boy
Johno said to prepare myself to say "holy macrole" all the time
I say bring it on LONDON!! I'm so excited.
anyone else have more good advice for me??

I did lent for 40 days (see past blog, full of clever, witty entries that I'm sure you'd enjoy), and then 40 days of puttering around, waiting for this (again, immortalized in blog format, however slightly less enjoyable), and now here I am! 40 days in the coolest city in the world. This blog shall be the crowning jewel in my collection cause for these 40 days (give or take), I finally have actually have something awesome to do!