REJECTED!

So, with all of my family abandoning me to exotic parts of the world like Kentucky and Houston, I have been really valuing blogs so I can hear from everyone. With this new appreciation, I think I may start blogging again, so here's the first in several months.

Yesterday was the most bipolar day I've had in a while. It started out bad because I had to get up early and take my car to the shop to fix the defroster and the emergency flashers. You see, the registration on my car had expired in November, so I had to get it inspected again. I was worried that the brakes were going to be the problem because they'd been squeaking, but surprisingly they were ok. However, when the car guy came back, he handed me a stack of official looking papers, the topmost labeled with a huge REJECTED on the bottom. Truly, it was unfathomably large. It's almost enough to set your self-esteem back a few years. And not only do you have to stare that huge REJECTED in the face, you have to sign it to say that you didn't miss the 12-foot letters at the bottom of the page. As if a person could possibly miss those if they tried! I was surprised I didn't have to take it home to show my parents. Really, I've enclosed pictures so you can see that I'm not exaggerating...at all. :)

Anyway, I dropped my car off, went to work where we ended up having waffles for breakfast, took part in a movie, had a pizza party for lunch and went bowling. :) Yeah, work should be like that everyday. I was feeling pretty good about things, despite the REJECTED looming in the back of my brain. I decided to call the shop to see if they'd figured out an estimate yet.
BAD IDEA.
Part #1 - $190
Part #2 - $60
Labor - greater than or equal to $200

Well, so much for my good day. haha. But after taking my Spanish final, I drowned my sorrows in the lights at Temple Square.
GOOD IDEA.
Merry Christmas to all!!!!

What to do when you get front row seats to Pygmalion...

Dear Readers, if there are any left,
Sorry for my lack of writing. It has been busy as usual and then the piling up of all the blogging I have to do has been rather intimidating. So, I'll just do my best.
Yesterday, we had the opportunity of going to the houses of Parliament (for those who don't know, that is the building that houses Big Ben). We got to have a tour of everything because Parliament isn't in session right now. It was so cool to see everything, but we weren't allowed to sit down on the benches in the House of Lords or the House of Commons, on pain of death...okay, not really, but on pain of the security guards/tour guide tackling you. Afterwards we went to the place where the Prime Minister lives, but the street was under construction so it was rather anti-climatic. Then we went to the V&A or Victoria and Albert Museum to see some things for homework assignments. While there, we got to try on a gauntlet, which was surprisingly light and flexible. I'll probably start wearing them from now on. Also, we got to make a family crest, although, technically I already have one.
Later that night, Hannah, Lambwyke, Rachael, and I went to see if we could get tickets to Pygmalion. We took the tube to Waterloo station (part of the Bourne Ultimatum is filmed there) and walked to the theatre. After we secured some excellent front row tickets for only 12 pounds, we had an hour to kill before the show started. We decided to walk around a park that was on the next corner. Unfortunately, the "millenial park" that had been redone for the year 2000 was definitely the most ghetto park I have ever been in. There was trash all over and the "water feature" it boasted was definitely a sluggish trickle, also filled with trash. However, the most delightful part of our park experience was the creepy inhabitants of the park, particularly the gang of sketchy druggies hanging out underneath a little grove of trees, apparently cat-calling us. We aptly renamed it, Rapist Park.
The play was AMAZING! It was basically like My Fair Lady, minus the music, which is rather a shame, but the actors were amazing. I was completely taken in. I didn't even have a spare moment to ponder on how scary it would be to walk back home in that part of town. Luckily we got home without any incident.
Today was a great day. We got to sleep in, finally! Then a group of us headed over to Greenwich, where the Prime Meridian is and the clock where the world gets its time. All in all, it wasn't that spectacular, but it was definitely cool to go and take pictures and say that we have been in two hemispheres at once. Not that easy. :) We also were up on the hill where the Royal Observatory (and the clock, etc.) were and we looked up and saw some planes doing barrel rolls and stuff. Apparently, there was a Red Bull sponsored air show today and we were in a prime location to watch it. It was neat-o.
Then, tonight, we went to Hard Rock Cafe London. It was the original one and it was WAY good!!! Gotta love American burgers. Then we walked home. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. Church in the morning! Woot. Sorry for not writing about Scotland some more. I'll try to do so ASAP. Love ya!

What to do when the fire alarm in your castle goes off...

I have to write about my week in Scotland and Northern England in installments because otherwise it is too daunting...and probably no one would want to read the finished product, being novel-length. Let us start at our first destination, Durham, England.
This is the castle we stayed in. Yes, you heard me correctly. We stayed in a castle. My room was that second row of windows in the tower. A lot of the girls were stuck up in that tower, sort of like a bunch of princesses, imprisoned, awaiting rescue from a knight in shining armor...except there is no dating on the trip so we are out of luck. ;)
When we got to Durham, we checked into our castle and then we wandered the town a little, first exploring the Durham cathedral. It is an amazingly beautiful cathedral which I truly cannot capture in my pictures a)because my camera isn't perfect and b)because I don't have the photographer gene...actually, I'm not sure if anyone in our family has the photographer gene. Correct me if I'm wrong. :) So after we explored the cathedral we went to get something to eat, but apparently if you aren't in London, everything in England closes at 6 pm. Unfortunate. So we found a tavern that was open, but smelled like pee and beer (unfortunately as all pubs and taverns do) and a place called Pizza Express. Definitely the better choice. After that we wandered through Durham for a while, getting semi-lost looking for ice cream (we were successful at last!) and then ending up at the cathedral at dark to tell scary stories. Unfortunately, none of us really know ghost stories, so it ended up being a "this isn't really that scary, but....it's funny" story night, which was equally enjoyable.
Then, we all retired to bed for a peaceful night's sleep in the tower. Right? WRONG-O!!!!!!!! I awoke to the piercing and penetrating sound of an alarm permeating the air throughout the castle. I had no idea what it was, having been awoken from a deep and sound sleep. My roommate frantically started packing her bags while I sat in bed with my ears plugged and tried to awaken my brain as to what could possibly be going on. Apparently it was a fire alarm, at 5 in the morning. So after convincing my roommate that she did not need her suitcase, we descended the 12 flights of stairs to the ground floor and evacuated in our pajamas. So in the shadow of the Durham cathedral, we waited for some sort of direction and also sang happy birthday to one of our crew. "Aw, guys, you didn't have to do all this for me. Pull the fire alarm just to get everyone up to sing happy birthday." oh, so classy.
Anyway, after a 30 minute wait, we were allowed to go back to our tower to sleep for another hour and a half. And you want to know the ridiculous thing? The wing of the castle where the boys were sleeping, the fire alarm went off for about 15 seconds and then turned off, so they got to sleep through the whole experience! Their loss. Not seeing us in all our morning glory heeheehee. Anyway, that is the end of this installment. Tune in next time for Tales from Scotland.

What to do when you enter the Great Hall...

So, it has been an eventful week. I can't believe how fast time is flying! Seriously, I thought I updated my blog like 2 days ago, but it has practically been a week...or it has been a week exactly. :) Anyway, so major events:

I can't remember exactly what day it was, but I think on Tuesday I was trying to get tickets to the Royal Opera for Le Nozze de Figaro, but it ended up being La Boheme. I was totally fine with that, I would love to see either one, but unfortunately, the opera is sold out...forever. Or something like that. There were tickets for somewhere over 100 pounds, but that's definitely not in my price range. I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get to go to the opera, but some of the girls with me wanted to see if there were any other cool shows near where the opera was. The Lion King was only down the street, so we went to get tickets, but they were completely sold out too. Rats. However, they did offer us standing room only tickets for 13 pounds. Hmmm...standing through an entire musical. That sounds enjoyable. :) I wasn't too excited, but decided that I should just try it. When would I ever get the chance to see Lion King (the musical, I'm sure I'll watch the movie many more times in my life), standing or not. So, not too excitedly, I got standing tickets to the Lion King. But much to my great delight, it was AMAZING!!!! Seriously, it opens with this amazing African singing and then giraffes wander onstage with the trademark Lion King sunset in the background. The costumes and sets were sooooooooooooo cooooooool!!!! I can't even describe how amazing they are. And the singing was so great also. Really, I shouldn't describe the performances on my blog because I just say "it was great, it was amazing, it was awesome", but it was! And you can ask me in person if you want me to ramble off all the cool things that I loved. Oh! And after intermission, I was able to get a seat, so that added significantly to my joy.

Then, on Wednesday, our group toured the Globe theater, a replica of the original theater that Shakespeare's plays were performed in. Our guide was really funny and told us all we could want to know about the globe. She also got me really excited to see plays there, because aside from being really well done, the actors interact with the audience because there are a ton of audience members standing around the stage (groundling tickets are only 5 pounds). Our guide also told us that a lot of funny things happen because of it being open air and an interesting set up. One time 2 huge helicopters hovered over the theater for several minutes and it was impossible to hear the actor, so he started just dancing around, doing a little jig, then miming things, all completely random. So choice. Hopefully something weird will happen when we see King Lear.

Wednesday night, on my strange spurt of proactivity, I got two girls together and we got tickets to Wicked! It was also amazing. I loved Glinda, she was HILARIOUS! Perfect comedic timing. And Elfaba was great. I loved all of her songs, well, except the love song. I just have to say, what is that? Probably the least romantic love song I've heard in a musical recently...or ever. They are like belting at each other, and it isn't ballad-y at all. Oh well, just my humble opinion. And everything else was really great.

Thursday, we went to Stratford-upon-Avon, the place where Shakespeare was born and lived. It was really cool to take a tour of Ann Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife) cottage and Shakespeare's birthplace. Shakespeare's birthplace was neat, but there were definitely random actors walking around who would bust into Shakespeare randomly. At times it was truly awkward and I didn't know how to respond, but there was one couple who did a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, that was really good. We also got to watch The Merchant of Venice at the theater there. It was really good, although, I have to admit, I did doze for a while, but against my will! I tried so hard to stay awake, and the play was really good, I just couldn't fight the weak flesh anymore. Also, my friend got spit on by stupid boys that were on the balcony above us. Charming.

And last but not least this week, I went to Oxford with some friends from the program. It was roughly an hour train ride away from London. We got to see the Great Hall from Harry Potter and we got to see the tree that is supposedly where the Chesire cat would appear (it was the garden that Lewis Carroll wrote about in Alice in Wonderland) and we got a nice British chap for a great tour guide in the cathedral at Christ Church college (where we visited the aforementioned other stuff). Alright, that is the summary of my week. Rather eventful, and I'm sorry that it is more like a grocery list than an entertaining account of my time in London. I'll try to be more comedic. :) Love you!

What to do when you get sick in London...

Yes, I did contract the flu in London, but don't worry. By the time I am writing this I am almost over it and it wasn't that bad. Sorry I haven't written for a while. I didn't realize it was so long. A lot of stuff has happened. Probably my most favorite things have been seeing Les Mis and The Sound of Music!!!!

We saw the Sound of Music first and it was amazing! The set had this huge circular piece of set that when the play starts is vertical, so it's like a penny standing on it's edge and Maria is in the middle of it, standing on this little...I don't know what, but she's in the middle of it, but then it rotates so it is flat and Maria is laying on the hillside. I can't describe it very well, but it was sooooo coool! I would draw you a diagram if I was technologically suave enough. The sets were great, the acting and singing was great, the little British children were great! The only not great thing, which was kinda disappointing, was that Captain Von Trapp was kind of a goober. I think he was the understudy. But you couldn't really root for him that much. You almost wished that Maria just took all the children and ran off into the hills...or something. :)

Then Les Mis was so incredible! We were ridiculously high up on the last balcony, but it was still amazing! So powerful, such good music, everything. Well, one disappointing thing about this too. The scene where Javert jumps of the bridge...he didn't even jump off a bridge. It was like they tried to make it look like he did with light effects and stuff, but it was way dumb compared to the Dixie High school version, which is pretty pathetic if you ask me. The high school outdid the professional company. Anyway, but other than that, it was wonderful.

Another favorite thing that I've done recently is visit Cambridge University. There is a fun tradition of punting on the Cam, that is, boating on this little river in those low boats with long sticks. I'll try to load a picture, but I am not technologically suave as we previously discussed, and the internet is faulty. So I'll try. It was really fun! The best 2.5 pounds I've spent in England. And we didn't even tip over or fall in, although we did manage to ram almost every other boat in sight, get stuck in a tree, and lose our pole on a bridge. hahahaha, oh good times.

While at Cambridge, we also got to see Evensong performed at King's College. For those of you who don't know, Evensong is a ceremony in the Church of England that is sort of like evening prayers/services. A lot of it was singing by a boy's choir and then some scripture reading by some clergy and some prayer. It was really a beautiful thing to attend. The church we went to is really famous for it's architecture. It was beautiful. And the boy's choir was amazing. When they first started singing, it completely filled the whole space and rang through every part of the church. It was sooooo awesome to be there. It was unfortunate that I was so tired from the night before. I had stayed up pretty late talking with some friends in the program, so by the end of the day when we went to Evensong, I was falling asleep against my will. Even when we had to stand up, I almost fell over during the prayer. That would've been slightly embarrassing.

Well, this is probably long enough for one post, so I'll talk to you all later. Love!

What to do when there are no British people in London...

Okay, that really has nothing to do with anything, except that it is true. I think mostly Italians, French people, Indians, and a German here and there. No Brits. Especially at Portobello Rd, which is where we went this morning, also where I ate an apple strudel which tasted what I imagine mince meat to taste like, even though it was mostly fruity and didn't have any meat in it at all. But seriously, what whas that taste?! Weird. And I think it had dates in it or something. Yikes, avoid that next time. But I did also get this really good mozarella, tomato, and basil sandwich thingy. Delightful!
So, I haven't posted a blog for a few days and I think we've done some cool things. We went to the Tower of London yesterday. It was neat! We saw the Crown Jewels which include all these random golden objects like a coronation spoon and an orb. Also there was this thing called like the Exeter Salt or something. I have no idea what exactly it is for, but it was waaaaay to big to be a salt shaker.
Aside from golden salt shakers, we got a tour from one of the Beef Eaters. He was hilarious and educational, all in one fell swoop. It was awesome to hear a lot of the history of the Tower. It was actually used as a lot more than a prison, interestingly enough.
So there were also places to tour around just walking, like a torture museum and the Bloody Tower. I thought there was supposed to be a lot of interesting stuff in there, but the torture musuem was seriously, one room (because apparently the Brits have only 81 recorded people that they tortured. pretty civil compared to like the spanish inquisition or something). Not that I wanted a huge detailed account. I actually had enough of that from the torture museum that we went to in Mexico with the guide that whistled creepily. But I definitely thought the bloody tower would have at least a bunch of cool history about the prisoners that were kept in the tower of london, but no. It was this ridiculous one-room exhibit, tambien. Anyway, other than that, it was really cool.
Other exciting thing, we went to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge is obvious, but possibly some people might not know what Bath is. Bath is a town built around this Roman bathhouse that was built on these natural hot springs or something to that effect. And in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, the characters are in Bath for a lot of time. It is definitely the neatest town we've been to...well, only town we've been to, but it is seriously cool. The architecture is AMAZING and there are little streets that wind around and beautiful hills that surround the town. Ah! Beautiful. My camera died though, so I'll have to get some pictures from Hannah and post them. Sorry I haven't posted any pictures on here. It didn't work the two times I've tried it and the internet has an attitude here, so it is 50/50 anyway. Oops. I've got to go! Talk to you later!

What to do when you accidentally stumble upon the WORLD PREMIERE OF MAMMA MIA!...

So, the title pretty much sums it up, but for some more detail:
My roommates (Lauren, Danielle, Lauren, Rachael, and Hannah) went on one of our assigned walks around London. This one went along the south of the Thames and we passed a bunch of sweet bridges, not to mention the original Clink museum (that's how other prisons got the slang name, "the clink"), a pirate ship, a sweet cathedral, the Globe theater, an open air book market (must return), and numerous other cool shops and buildings. I also purchased my first chocolate milk of London. Pretty good, but I'm still a true addict of the American version. Overall, it was my favorite walk, I think because it was such a cool atmosphere along the river. Usually rivers or large bodies of water have cool shops and things that give it even greater ambiance. At night it's even cooler!
Anyway, so we crossed a bridge to get to the north side to go buy tickets at some booth near Leicester Square for whatever musical or show we could get. I didn't end up buying one because they were too expensive, but while we were there, we saw some event being set up and a gazillion posters for the movie Mamma Mia! the one based on the musical of Abba songs. Lauren asked a police man what it was for and he said the WORLD PREMIERE of Mamma Mia! and all the stars would be there!!!! Do you guys know who is in that movie?! Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan!!! Yeah, I know. :)
So it was starting in like an hour so we decided to stick around and check it out. It ended up taking a lot longer for all the stars to get there, but it was worth it. There were camera crews there and they were playing the music from the movie and people were going crazy! We ended up only being on the second row behind the fence so we were so close! We were next to these gay guys who were there for Meryl and Dominic Cooper (this hot British star who is in it too). They were pretty intense about it. Also, we were next to this smelly, hairy man who would bend over and you would see too much...lovely. And some sweaty man behind me was like reaching over me, practically embracing me, to get pictures.
Okay, the weird people we were next to weren't that enjoyable, but definitely part of the experience. But then the stars started arriving and Meryl Streep was like right in front of my face, signing autographs. And then this other British star who is in the movie and I believe Bootstrap Bill in Pirates of the Carribean was also right in front of my face. Then we saw COLIN FIRTH and PIERCE BROSNAN! In the flesh! So crazy! And we also saw the ditzy blonde from mean girls, because she is the main girl in this movie. And then, TOM HANKS produced the movie, so we saw TOM HANKS! AND HIS WIFE!!!! Can you believe it?! It was so sweet! I mean, I've never been movie star crazy, but seriously? This was so cool! We got a bunch of pictures, so I'll try to put some up. Anyway, love you all! Tomorrow we're going on a day trip to Bath and Stonehenge. I'm excited!

What to do when you attend 6 hours of church...

Dear Readers:
This Sunday was amazing! I've been feeling a little lost in London, namely because it isn't Mexico. Whoever thought that phrase would come out of my mouth? But there it is. Anyway, today I found a little piece of home.
First off, 5 girls and I are assigned to the Wandsworth Commons ward, which is extremely cool because it reminds me of Harry Potter (WANDsworth) aside from the fact that it is a neat ward. So we all left at 8:30 am to get to our ward which starts at 10:00 am (we have to take the tube and a train to get there). We got there okay despite the fact that we almost ended up on the wrong train platform, we DID miss our station because we apparently didn't press the Open Door button fast enough, and then we accidentally walked a block up to a dead end before we realized we had exited the wrong side of the train station. Classic. :)
At church there were more Americans than Londoners. In fact, I don't even know if there were more than 3 native British people in that ward. There were some people from Africa and all over that I don't even know yet. It's amazing how diverse the church/city is over here! I got "called" (they can't really give us an official call because we're here so short a time and our records aren't in the wards) to be in the Young Womens. Cool! I'm excited. :) I get to teach in two weeks.
Oh, almost forgot. They have Sacrament last, so during Sunday School, the bishop comes up to us and asks us if we'll each bear our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting. And then he's like, "P.S. You're already on the program."...ok, he didn't really say P.S., but it was like that. :) So we bore our testimonies in Sacrament meeting.
Then, I had heard there was a Spanish branch and I really really really want to keep up the Spanish that I have, so I asked a guy in our ward who used to go to the Spanish branch how to get there. So the girls went back to the Centre and then I made my way alone to the Tube station and then found the right stop and exited and then I tried to find the chapel and...didn't find it. I found the road that the directions said it would be on, but the chapel was not on that street. So I was a little nervous, being alone wandering the streets with no idea where to go, but I decided that all I had was time so it was okay to wander for a while and as long as I knew where the Tube was, I could find my way home. Plus, I just sort of had a constant prayer in my head, "Please help me find the church, please help me find the church, please help me find the church and not get attacked :)". So I wandered back up the street and asked this random guy if there was a church on the street and he was like, "Yeah, just go up there and around the corner."
So I go up the road and around the corner and find a ginormous castle-like church, obviously not an LDS church, but I didn't really figure the guy would point me to an LDS church anyway. So in my head I was wondering, "Should I just go back home and give it up? Or should I wander around and try to find it because I know that I am really close? And I really want to go!" So I decided that I would just go up this one block and try to loop around and go back up the original street and if I didn't find the chapel, then I would go home.
Randomly enough, I walked down the street and at this intersection, Behold, the chapel! Seriously, it was a miracle. Divine intervention. It was so neat! And then I went to church and it was amazing! I just felt so at home! It reminded me of Mexico and it was so nice to be hearing Spanish again and feeling the Latin culture. I also got a Libro de Mormon so I can study the scriptures in Spanish. AND there were adorable Latin children, along with a lot more diversity, like in the first ward. It isn't just a Spanish branch, it's Spanish and Portugese and there are people from Africa and South America and all over! It's so cool!
However, this leads to a dilemma. Six hours of church weekly or no Spanish? So far I'm choosing 6 hours, but we'll see how long I last. :) Love you!

What to do when you lose the group...

Dear Readers:
I woke up today after a sort of confusing night's sleep. My body kept telling me to wake up, but I was tired enough that I just kept telling it to be quiet and go back to bed, and it worked. :) Breakfast was good, although the apricot jam was sketchy. Then we had orientation with one of our professors and then the house manager guy. The professor understood the wonderfulness of a quick run through and then passed the time over to the house manager who ended up spending an hour and a half discussing the principle of how we should live in a foreign country and taking just 5 quick minutes at the end to go over specifics. Glad we truly got the vague principle of living together nicely. I don't know if I would've understood it without that hour and a half. It's a difficult one. (do you hear the sarcasm? sometimes it's difficult online)
Then we went on one of the walks around London, it was a downtown one, I think. We walked by the Thames and through this little garden and promptly got lost from the group, well, 5 of us did. But it was okay because we were wandering around and all of a sudden we saw Big Ben and then we wandered a bit more and found Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. It was pretty sweet. So we went into the National Gallery for 2 hours and saw some awesome paintings, like Picasso, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, etc., etc. Then we came back home and here I am. There is supposed to be a showing of "The Sound of Music" in some little theater outside tonight for free. Sweet!
Aside from that, I am spending a lot of time missing Mexico, unfortunately. It's hard because it's such a similar situation, being in a foreign country in a big group of students, wandering around in a herd, but without all of my friends. I know I'll get to know the people here, but right off the bat, I just wish all of my Mexico friends came with me to London. Anyway, I'm sure things will brighten up soon, though not necessarily the weather. :) It rained today, lovely, lovely. :)

What to do when your seat mate gets sick...

Dear Everyone Who Wants to Read this:
After little deliberation, I decided that a blog would be a better way to keep more people updated about my life this summer. So without further ado, and without much ado at all to start with, here is my first entry.
I started my trip to London today, or rather, yesterday at noon Mountain Standard Time. I arrived in London today at roughly 3 PM GMT, which I believe is the abreviation for whatever time zone London is in. While the flight from Vegas to Houston was rather uneventful (I did sit by a charming hick guy from New Orleans who was wearing an orange shirt, a hunting baseball cap, and reading hunting magazines and his wife behind him was always like, "Baybah, is thayt a train-yard?" as she looked out the window), the flight from Houston to London was a bit more exciting. First off, I got on the plane, found my seat, and realized that I didn't have a seat mate! Hooray! Every traveler's dream!!! Unfortunately the plane was delayed an hour due to technical difficulties, but no matter, I had two seats to myself!!!! Oh wait.
So some hornery old man had taken some seat other than his own in the row next to me. The flight attendant told him any other seat than that because someone was probably coming that would sit there, but he just sat there anyway. Well, the other guy did come, like a 30-year-old Indian guy from Sacramento. He just came and sat by me because my seat was open and I looked friendly I guess. How lucky.
So he really wasn't that bad. He was pretty interesting to talk to. He was opening up a restaurant in Sacramento but he was flying to London for his cousin's wedding, etc. However, I found out that he had been drinking at the bar because he had a long layover and I was like, "Charming. A drunken fool." But that wasn't even the bad part. He threw up!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait, was that enough exclamation points to convey my disgust, shock, disbelief? I don't think so. !!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, he threw up and ran away to the bathroom and the flight attendants didn't even do anything about it. They threw a blanket over the vomit and that was it. Finally I was like, "Um, can I switch seats?" (Even though it was my seat and extra seat to begin with!) So I switched to an aisle seat and ended up sitting next to this really nice guy from London, Joe, who was very sympathetic about the man who "was sick" up front. Joe told me all about the things I need to see in London and we chatted for a lot of the flight and slept for a lot more (slept is a rough term, mind you).
When we arrived in London and had to go through Immigration with this nasty guy who kept asking about the program and when I would say "We are staying here" or "we are studying" he would say, "I thought you were traveling alone!" Blah!
So through some miraculous circumstances, I met up with two of the program girls at the airport and we took a taxi to the London Centre and now here we are. We took a walk around Kensington Gardens/Palace to fight the jetlag and now it is about 3 in the afternoon in Utah and 10? ish here. So I think I did pretty good for the night. Anyway, love you! More good stories to come, I'm sure. :)