"Saying goodbye doesn't mean anything. It's the time we spent together that matters, not how we left it." Trey Parker

After arriving home from Denmark, it was crunch time for my roomie MC. We had decided that Wednesday would be our birthday day for her since her birthday was on the 9th of May, but some of us were out of town and we couldn't celebrate properly.

We started with a birthday breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes and sausage! From there, I left to go shopping for the items I would need for our appetizer dinner and to pick up the cake for her birthday. But overall, most of the day we spent with each other and the girls upstairs enjoying our last moments together as a group. For dinner we had our typical appetizers: spinach artichoke dip, buffalo chicken dip and fruit salsa. I even decided to try and make some patatas bravas that didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, but it was worth a try!

During dinner the seven of us went around talking about our favorite place we visited and our favorite thing that we experienced while studying abroad. After about an hour had passed, we pulled out the cake from Hummingbird Bakery and MC made a wish and blew out her candles!

Unfortunately when she blew out her candles, the sprinkles that were on the top of the cake also got blown off. 

Props to AR for taking these pictures.

After dessert, it was a sad farewell from the girls upstairs. MC was leaving around 8:00 the next morning when a car would come and pick her up with all her luggage and take her to the airport. 

The next morning (May 14), it was hard to say goodbye. I helped MC carry her bags down to the curb where the car was waiting and gave her a big hug goodbye and watched her drive away. (In case you were wondering, MC decided to switch her flight back home early to surprise her mom and sister.) It was weird to have the room suddenly to myself and all of MC's stuff gone. The weather was in accordance with my mood about MC leaving, it was quite rainy, so I decided to put on my pink Wellies and head out. 

I ended up taking the tube to the Arsenal tube stop and headed into Emirates Stadium for a self-guided walking tour. 

I ended picking a good day, because there weren't many people out and about. So I had some of the stops on the tour all to myself. This stadium is HUGE! It holds over 60,000 people at one time! It's pretty new and has some cool features. The roof is made in such a way that it collects water when it rains, which can then be reused to water the pitch later. 

The grass just looked so perfect, I really wanted to go roll around in it. But I was pretty sure that would get me arrested, so I was able to resist. 

When you take the tour, you have the option to take a look around in the locker rooms. 

Which have their own hot tube for players after matches. 

I'm not going to go into too much detail about the stadium right now because I go back later so I'll toss in more details then!

Afterwards, I headed back to the flat so that I could start studying for my final that I had on the 18th. But I did call the parentals to brag to my dad that I got to the stadium and to ask their opinion about what to do with all my luggage (I'll come back to that later as well). They were together shopping at Home Depot and I just had to take a picture because I'm sure it looked funny from an outsiders perspective on their end. 

The next day (May 15th), TP and I went down to Kensington and back to the Parent Trap House because she had missed out when MC and I went. So we went and took some lovely pictures. Afterwards, we walked right down the road to Harrod's because why not? I had never been in before, and let me tell you, I felt very inadequate. 

This place is HUGE, it has 5 or 6 floors and the bottom floor has its food area. Each of the rooms of the food area were categorized differently. There was an entire room for fish, different healthy foods and an entire room for Chocolate! I was thinking of buying some, but when I saw the prices, I slunk away with my tail between my legs. 

We made our way upstairs to Harrod's own Laudree (a fancy french cafe where they serve tasty Macaroons) (of course, too expensive for us once again). We walked around upstairs where the clothes were and finally decided that we were quite unworthy and hustled out of there! It was back to the flat for studying for me!

Saturday, May 16th, was my day to go exploring. When we had gone on our Jack the Ripper walking tour back in February, we ended up at an outdoor market called Spittalfields, which by that time at night was closed, but I was determined to make my way back to! 

I made my way to the market just in time for some tasty lunch! While I was debating on what to eat by walking between the different stalls, someone walked past me with a large tray of fish and chips. I had made up my mind! 

While this market wasn't like Borough (food market), they still had some interesting things for sale on some of the stalls. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything I couldn't live without, so I moved on without buying anything. 

I made my way south and ended up walking over Tower Bridge. It was such a lovely day, but that wasn't my destination. I found my way to a small little market called Maltby Street Market. It was probably one of the smallest markets I had seen. It was just a bunch of different food vendors selling food in an alleyway between a coupe of buildings. (Yes that does sound sketchy, but there were a lot of people there!) After walking around for about 10 minutes, I finally found the stall I wanted! 

I had been told about these brownies by two different people on my travels, and let me tell you, if you are ever in London and are looking to eat the best brownies of your entire life...you need to find these. (Although, I would recommend stopping at Tesco and buying a small thing of milk to drink it with, because these are very very rich! and you are going to want something to drink afterwards!) (My mouth is watering just thinking about it!)

I ended up buying two because I couldn't decide which one would taste better. It was raspberry cheesecake swirl and salted caramel. They were so rich and creamy that I could only eat one in that sitting. 

After stopping at the market, I wanted to check another Doctor Who place off my bucket list and that was the estate that they filmed Rose Tyler's building at. It was a part of London that I had never been to before on the south side of the river. I'm going to be honest, I don't think I found it even though I tried pretty hard to look for it. While I've always felt safe in London, I was feeling kinda iffy about the area that I was in. So while I did look for the building, I didn't try and stay for very long because I was anxious to get home. But don't worry! I made it home alright and I went to bed pretty early because I had done a lot of walking and eating that day!

Something is NOT rotten in the state of Denmark, actually, its quite delicious!

Saturday May 9th I got the chance to sleep in while Grandma and SM went to an anniversary breakfast. Apparently in Denmark, it tradition for the friends and family of a couple to wake them up with music and decorations the morning of their 25th wedding anniversary. I thought it was a very cute tradition, but because I didn't know the family very well, I didn't want to impose, so I made the sacrifice to stay at home and sleep in.

Once Grandma and SM came home to pick me up, we got in the car and headed to the Frilandsmuseet or the Open Air Museum. This museum is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world! The entire museum covers 40 hectares of open land (1 hectares= 2.47 acres) and had buildings laid throughout all of this open land. However, these buildings were not like the ones you and I see today, no, many of these buildings are centuries old were refurbished by very skilled artists. These buildings were brought from all over Scandinavia and reassembled brick by brick to sit in these 40 hectares. 

Unfortunately I didn't take these pictures, I pulled them off the internet. But I wanted to give you a general idea about what the buildings looked like.

I even made GM and SM pose for some pictures:)

They even had some live stock living on the grounds. 

This horse didn't like me very much, once I approached it, it turned its back on me. RUDE!

They had two windmills on the grounds, this one was the more impressive one.

We spent a couple of hours there enjoying the cool weather until it started to rain. We then headed inside the restaurant and had some lunch. (I, of course, had some delicious fish and chips!)(Just goes to show that you can get decent fish and chips outside of the UK) 

On our way back home we stopped at the market to pick up a Danish treat (I don't remember what it was, but it was triangle and something I didn't like it too much) and we also stopped at the Turkish market for SM to get some cheap Marabou (Swedish Chocolate). And because we were already so close, we made our way over to the Danish temple which unfortunately was closed:/ But I still got some pictures anyway. 

Once we piled back in the car we drove to another island, Amager, to go to a tasty gelato shop that SM and GM were bragging about. It was called Ismageriet and let me tell you it was AMAZING. 

Let me tell you, if you are ever in Denmark and want to try the best Gelato every, go to this place! I think it was better than the Gelato I had in Italy, and I did try quite a few places! 

We made our way back home to snack on chocolate and pastries for dinner and played some more Nines (in which GM and I kicked SM's butt!). Once again my favorite part was listening to SM complain about one move or another that lead him to failure. We didn't last long, GM and SM had had an early morning and I was pretty tired from all the sugar I'd eaten, so we turned in for the night. 

The next morning was Sunday and Mother's Day and I was excited to be able to go to a different ward where they spoke in a different language. (Plus I was really excited to see if there were any cute guys there). Church was only 2 1/2 hours long and had only been changed to that recently. It was a small ward and I think a reason they shortened it was because there were only so many times people in that ward could speak in sacrament or in lessons. So they shortened it to make it easier. 

During sacrament, a lady in the ward had signed up to translate and was handing out headphones that were connected to a mic she held in her hand and spoke into while she translated. There were a few speakers as normal, but what wasn't normal was that one of the speakers was a girl about 8 or 9 years old I felt and one of the others was a member of the Bishopric. 

Thankfully, the Sunday School lesson was given in English by one of the young adults in the ward. It was a small class which included: GM, SM, the teacher, two visitors from somewhere else in Denmark and a young man who had grown up in San Tan, but had moved to Denmark a few years ago. (I think it was something to do with his parents?) Relief Society was taught by a beautiful young woman who, I was told by GM, used to be a ballerina and you could tell. (Not in a bad why of course, but dancers always move with such grace and poise, something I wish I had.) She taught about the Book of Mormon. This lesson was also in Danish, but the same lady who translated Sacrament meeting also translated Relief Society. 

After church, we headed home to have a light lunch a relax a bit before heading over to a members house for dinner where we had a typical Danish meal. Unfortunately, I can't remember any of the dishes, I do know there was some Salmon, two types of salads and some potatoes while dessert was a tasty raspberry treat. The couple who hosted were a cute older couple who had invited their son and pregnant wife over as well. We ended up spending several hours there, the husband of the older couple kept trying to set me up with different young men he knew from his ward. After dinner it was a 30 minute drive home where I kept dozing in the backseat and then finally off to bed!

The next morning was quite a lazy day. Grandma's hip and back were bothering her, so we decided to rest up for our long journey to the center in the afternoon for FHE. I spent my time reading while GM  did her Danish homework and worked on a lesson she was going to give on Thursday night. Around noon we had lunch and prepared to leave to go to the center. Thankfully, this time we didn't have to prepare any meals. We arrived at about 5:00 and I continued to read while GM and SM went over her Danish homework. 

They were really quite cute, I couldn't quite hear all they were saying, but let me tell you there was quite a bit of laughter and smiling going on. All in all I'm not sure how much homework got done;)

Because it was May, lessons were winding down, so instead of having a full lesson, they just had a discussion about what they would like to learn about in the summer months. There were suggestions written all over the board as different kids put in their input. Thankfully, a young man translated the discussion for me while he inputed some suggestions himself. Quite the multi-tasker. 

After an hour or so we went on a walk around the area as our activity. The walk lasted about 20 minutes or so, while the whole time I ended up talking to some of the missionaries who were there. They were elders from the US, so we had a fun time talking about what it was like living in a different country. (Let me tell you their experience was so much different than mine!) 

After the walk, we returned to some of the kids gathering around and playing games. I found out that there was even an old SET game stashed away which I pulled out and started to sort through. Thankfully, the adults didn't stay very long and we were heading home by 10:30. Once we got home, we changed into PJ's pulled out some chocolate and sat down to play some Nines:D

Tuesday, May 12th we were in a bit of a rush to get certain things done. Grandma and I went on a walking tour of the city using the app called Strayboots, a fun scavenger hunt that takes you around the city and gives you a bit of background that you wouldn't originally see. We ended up over by the Parliament building and took a picture in the guard's station. 

It's kind of hard to see, but on the right side above my head, is a cut out heart in the wood panel. I don't remember the reason why, but a heart was a big symbol in Denmark. 

Unfortunately, we were unable to go inside all of the places that the tour took us to. We were in a bit of a rush to get everything done so that I could make my plane on time at 4. But we did manage to stop in a famous cake shop which has been making cakes for the Royal Family for hundreds of years. 

I ended up with a tasty chocolate treat while Grandma got something she'd never had before. It was tasty and HUGE! as you can see from the pictures. 

On the way back to the flat, it started to rain pretty hard and we knew that we'd have to pull out the umbrella to go to the train station. We had about 20 minutes before we had to head out again, so I got the chance to toss my jacket into the dryer for a bit to try and remove some of the dampness that had settled in on our way home. 

We ended up leaving to the train station around 2:15, that way I would be on time and so that Grandma could ride the train on her senior pass before 3. We said our goodbyes before I took off to security and made my way back to the gate that would take me home to England. While I enjoyed my time immensely with Grandma and SM, I was ready to be home and not have to live out of a suitcase for sometime. 

D-D-Denmark!

FYI, this post will probably be a two parter because it was a busy week filled with fun!

Tuesday May 5th was a wonderful day! One of my now favorite books came out! And I was able to fly to Copenhagen, Denmark to visit my adoptive Grandma M! (She's there serving a mission with her husband SM, they come home at the end of August)

I had later flight thankfully, so I didn't have to worry about fighting rush hour getting to the airport. When I arrived, it was raining and our plane was docked farther out on the tarmac, so we had to walk in the rain to get into the terminal. Once I walked through the gate, Grandma M was waiting for me! (Unfortunately I was dumb enough and didn't take a picture at the airport, which I should have!)

We headed down to the metro where we met one of her YSA's who had just gotten off the same plane from London that I had! It was about a 20 minute ride to the central train station where we got off and walked to the flat she and SM were sharing. While in the train station she pointed out the Dunkin Donuts that had just been put in. (Apparently people were so excited that they had waited in line for a couple of hours just to get the donuts! Which is a little weird because the Danish have very good pastries, there is no reason to be obsessed with Dunkin.)

We arrived at their flat (thankfully it had stopped raining, so we were only a little damp) and they showed me the cute room where I would be staying including a cute gift basket with some goodies that Grandma had gotten me:) Once I got settled I went downstairs where the three of us chatted until it was after midnight and we turned in for the night.

The next morning Grandma made a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast! (It was nice to have real bacon, since the bacon in England is technically ham).

She wanted to take me on a tour of the city center (called Stroget) of Copenhagen afterwards! The city center was a large walking only area with shops lining the road. We walked around the shops and stopped by a cute little Christmas store that was open all year long. We also stopped by a large lego store that was on the block (The Danish invented legos! Unfortunately they were still just as expensive though)

Pieces of home can be found even here:)

After we walked around the city center, Grandma M took me to the Church of our Lady where the original Christus is! This little church is simple, but beautiful. 

When you walk in, there's a large chapel, which is mostly the entire building. Pews fill most of the room, and 12 large statues (representing the 11 apostles (minus Judas) and Paul) line both of the walls leading up to the alter. Behind the alter, sits the original Christus! Created by Bertel Thorvaldsen, this is the statue that the LDS church uses to portray Christ in Time Square and visitor centers around the world. 

We spent some time just sitting in the church and enjoying the peace and quiet until a large group of school kids came in and we figured it was time to leave. We wandered around Copenhagen for a bit, making a stop at another church that was quite desolate. Until we finally made our way to a tasty looking bakery and bought a snack. 

Mine just so happened to be a delicious cinnamon roll!

After we sat and ate our treats, we made our way to Nyhavn, one of the more recognizable places in Copenhagen. 

Forgive me, I may have gotten a little carried away with the pictures of Nyhavn:D

We took some selfies and then decided that taking a Harbor tour would be the quickest way to see all of the sights! Our tour didn't start for some time, so Grandma took me to see the Hans Christen Anderson shop where they had all sorts of items that revolved around his stories. They even had a mannequin of him reading. 

Our harbor tour lasted about an hour. The tour guide spoke in English (Thankfully) and in Danish. (I still think it would be pretty amazing to know more than one language. I think that'll be a new goal of mine, to learn to speak another language). We saw a lot of things on our tour, the Little Mermaid

She's kinda hard to see, but she's sitting on the round rock in the center. 

We saw the Black Diamond

This is actually a very large library shaped like a square and made out of dark glass. 

This is the Christiansborg Palace. This is the seat of Parliament and housed the Prime Minister's office. 

We also passed the Opera House, which had a huge roof that hung out over the water. 

We also managed to float down a canal and pass by another island. (Denmark is made up of hundreds of different islands that are all connected by bridges or fairies. Copenhagen sits on the island of Zealand, but it sits on the edge, hence the harbor. 

After our tour it was time for lunch, which we found at a hot dog stand on the way home. 

This hot dog was not only quite long, but had pickles and fried onions (like the type you put on a green bean casserole). But it was really good! The Danes sure know how to do hot dogs!

We made our way back down the Stroget and pass the flat so that I could stop by the fabric store and get a memoir of Denmark. Once we arrived at the flat it was nap time for the both of us. (Well I couldn't fall asleep, so it was reading time for me!)

Afterwards, Grandma, SM and I headed out to Tivoli, the famous theme park in Copenhagen! SM had a family pass, so we were able to get in without having to buy tickets! While we didn't ride any rides, we were able to walk around and take in the beauty of the park. They have 4 peacocks that they let walk around the park and it was cool because I had never been that close to a peacock before! 

The park was full of beautiful flower beds and I couldn't resist taking pictures of them:)

While we were at the park, I purchased some candy floss to snack on while we walked around. 

SM even stopped at one of the arcade games and played. 

It was sooooo cute to see them interact with one another. It was probably one of my favorite things of the entire week was to see their cute moments with one another. I only hope that someday I can have the same thing!

We walked around for a bit deciding where to eat dinner, and finally decided that we were going to go to the Danish version of McDonald's (of course much healthier and tastier) called Max. The bad part was it was quite a ways to walk and when we arrived, there was a bit of a queue to wait for food, but it was worth it. 

It was time to head home, after dinner we walked back to the flat to relax and change into some PJs. SM pulled out a stack of face cards and proceeded to teach me how to play Nines (a fun card game that mostly relies on luck) where I promptly kicked his butt! I think I won 2 of the 3 games that night, with Grandma winning the other. 

The next morning (May 7th) was a day we spent preparing. After having a wonderful breakfast once again prepared by Grandma with a little help by yours truly, we sat down for another game of Nines. (My luck wasn't as good as it was the night before, but poor SM kept losing the game by one or two cards.

We went shopping later in the morning to make sure we had all of the items we needed to prepare for dinner at the YSA center. Thankfully we didn't have to walk with all the groceries, Grandma and I walked with SM drove to the center where we unloaded the groceries and then he took the car back and walked back to the center. We were having Taco pileups which we quite easy to serve, but needed a bit of time to prepare. 

We had a wonderful lesson in Danish that night about the blessings that the Gospel gives to us. And I know what you're thinking, no I was not blessed with the Spirit of Tongues during that lesson, thankfully a newly returned missionary from Salt Lake took the time to translate the lesson for me. 

It ended up being a very late night. Some of the YSA didn't leave the center until 11:30 or so and by that time I was pretty much dead on my feet and we still had the walk home. Thankfully, it was a pretty uneventful walk home. The weather was perfect and the streets were quiet with little traffic. As you can imagine, I passed out very quickly once we arrived home. 

The next morning, SM went and rented a car so that I could ride in it! (They have a rule in their mission that they're only allowed to drive missionaries around in their car) We started off our day by driving out of the city to the Frederiksborg Slot, a castle that sits on its own little island (not sure if its manmade or not). 

This castle's quite lovely, even if the front of it is under construction (Just my luck right?) 

Grandma and I paid to go in and see the rooms, while SM opted to stay in the car and take a nap. We were able to walk around and see on the magnificent rooms! One of my favorite rooms was attached to the chapel. It's the King's room (the place where he sits during a service and worships there so he doesn't have to mingle with the rabble). This room is full of Carl Bloch paintings or the paintings that are often used by the LDS church to portray the Savior. You can see a collection of his work here if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Carl Bloch paintings

The chapel was pretty fantastic as well. 

Another one of my favorite rooms was where the dresses of the Queen of Denmark were held.

 I love my dresses! 

Afterwards we spent time walking through the garden, which was kinda bare since it was still springtime. 

Afterwards we headed back through a small town to get some lunch, unfortunately it was a windy road and I ended up getting really carsick. We headed back to the flat where I went and took a nap to try and sleep off my sickness. 

While I was napping Grandma and SM went shopping for food to make some food for a party we had been invited to that night. One of their YSA's had graduated and they were throwing a party to celebrate. They had some tasty food that I got to try such as Danish meatballs and a weird salad or two. (Someone was even kind enough and brought Swedish Fish to munch on). We were there for 3 hours or so, it was weird to be at because mostly everyone spoke in Danish, so I mostly talked to Grandma or SM, but overall I enjoyed it! 

We headed home and ended up opening some chocolate and playing another couple of rounds of Nines where SM once again lost badly. Thankfully he was a good sport about it:) He kept mentioning that he "hated this game" and I kept reminding him that he was the one who wanted to keep playing!