First week of School

So Monday was my first day of classes at the University of Westminster, but before school started I got to go to church on Sunday in my new ward! I was really really nervous, but I was really looking forward to church and I was so glad that I went! We had a speaker who is from Utah, Brad Wilcox (who, I was informed by my mom, went on several dates with my Aunt WE), and he spoke on why we believe in Christ. Some interesting points that I came away with were: If people tell us that Joseph Smith is a false prophet, then where is the real one? They don't have one to offer up for us. And that while the Bible has been altered many times for political reasons, we have a witness of Christ that has not been changed at all: The Book of Mormon. After church there was a baptism, a munch and mingle and then a fireside where Brad Wilcox spoke again, this time on the rules of the Church and how they allow us to fly instead of constrain us. My favorite thing that Brother Wilcox said was that "Our end goal is to become like Christ, not just come unto him".

Monday was the first day of school that I've had in a month and I had mixed feelings on going back. I was excited to get into a regular routine and to start learning again, but I didn't want to get out of my warm bed early Monday morning. My first class being at 9 o'clock I left at 8 thinking I would get there on time, unfortunately the tube had some problems, so I had to take a bus, but I was only a few minutes late and lecture hadn't started yet! My first class was Introduction to Developmental and Social Psychology which was a bit odd (I'm very grateful that I'm not a Psych major), but the professor put clips from the Matrix in the powerpoint, so I think it'll be alright. My second class of the day, Yoga, was 4 hours after Psych ended, so I hung around the lobby and read (I have the feeling I'm going to be able to get a lot of reading done because of it). Yoga was a four hour class and don't worry we didn't just do Yoga (thankfully, I'm sore from the mere hour and a half that we did). Two of my roommates are in that class with me, TP and MC, so we got to head home and make tacos for dinner because we we craving Mexican food! Unfortunately, as you can imagine, England doesn't have a ton of Mexican food and we had to improvise a bit. They had the basics: tortillas, salsa, cheese (although it's still white cheddar), meat and taco seasoning. But no chips and refried beans!!! Our Mexican night was incomplete!!! Thank goodness for Pinterest in teaching me how to make homemade tortilla chips that turned out alright!

Tuesday was a lovely day! I didn't have class till 2 o'clock so I got to sleep in and do some chores around the flat. Class today was Cognitive Psychology and it went better than Monday's Psych class, we learned more about the parts of the brain and how things are processed.

Wednesday was a bit of a doozy.*A little background about my trip on Wednesday. We have been instructed that we can only use a certain type of tablet in the washing machine and that these are hard to find. Well, the 4 of us were rather sick of not having any clean clothes, so I took matters into my own hands. I wanted to find these tablets at the store so I went ahead and purchased them online so that I could go after class to pick them up. So that we could finally have some clean laundry after being here nearly 3 weeks.* I had my history class, The London Blitz (which I am super excited about!!!) which got out early about 12:15 and then I headed to Brent's Cross to pickup these washing machine tablets. It was a 45 minute tube ride out north in the middle of nowhere and I had to wait about 30 minutes once I got to the store to pick up my purchase (Not to mention I had to walk about a half a mile just to cross the highway AND I was wearing my new heeled boots). Needless to say I was not a happy camper when I finally got back to my flat.

One of the girls (a couple of flats above us are in the ISA program as well) birthday was Wednesday so we went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. It was very very tasty and pretty well priced as well. The meals in England are smaller than a typical American meal and while I really did enjoy it I was missing some fresh breadsticks from Olive Garden! (although I did feel a bit out of place because out of the 7 girls I was the only one who didn't get some sort of drink, I think the waiter was a bit shocked as well) (but after attending institute today I was glad that I upheld my standards).

I am actually going to post another post about what we did today which I was very very very excited about:)

Lists and Lists

Today's post will be split into two part and the second part will definitely be rather long so bare with me! The first part (this one) is just my lists I thought I share with you about what's been running through my mind while I've been here the past couple of weeks. If you have no interest about my inner workings feel free to skip and wait for my second post in an hour or two!

Things that I miss

• Walmart
• Walmart, Walmart & Walmart. There is no concept of any sort of superstore here, if you need groceries, make up and new socks, you need to go to three different stores (sometimes more if they don't have the brand you are looking for). 
• Tortilla Chips
• I have not been able to find any bags of tortilla chips in any of the stores I have visited! So my roommates and I have made our own (tortillas, olive oil and salt) and it works as a substitute, but I still crave tortilla chips very badly.
• My Dog
• Everywhere I look I see dogs! And for some strange reason the English are very protective of their dogs, so you can't go up and pet them:( So every time I pass one in the street I make a weird sort of whining and I'm sure I get weird looks from people around me.
• A dryer
• For some reason, we are not allowed to use the dryer in our flat. I'm not sure why, maybe because it doesn't work or takes up too much electricity, but we have to air dry EVERYTHING! (Have you ever air dried anything? It gets crispy and does not feel nice against your skin)

Things that I Love 

• Transportation
• While I have spent quite a bit of money on public transportation, I love it! I can get on the tube and pull out my electronic book, read and be on my own. It's probably my favorite part of most days. It's very easy to get around and you do quite a bit of walking (it makes me feel very eco-friendly)
• The chocolate
• What's not to love about European chocolate? Its sooooo tasty and smooth and rich, not all waxy (as my mom would say about some American chocolate). For now I've stuck with the chocolate I know best, but I'm slowly trying different kinds. 
• The weather
• Some people may hate the fact that it's mostly cloudy and often rainy in London and while I do hate the occasional soaking downpour, it's so beautiful! I love the change in climate from hot, dry and sunny to this! (although my skin is having trouble adjusting to the different climate, I've been peeling pretty bad)
• The perfect place
• I mean this in a geographical way! I've been starting to plan trips around Europe during breaks and it's so easy to get from one country to another! I love it! So, if I feel like spending a 4 day weekend in Paris, it's only a two hour train ride away!

Tips for Traveling in London (That I've learned the hard way)

• Always carry an umbrella! 
• The weather changes quite suddenly here, and it is not a nice thing to be caught in the open when it starts to rain because then you are cold and wet.
• Wear comfortable shoes
• If you don't plan on taking a taxi everywhere (they are expensive), you need to wear comfortable shoes because you will be doing a lot of walking! Heels are not a nice thing to wear if you aren't used to walking in them for a couple of miles.
• Do not talk on the Tube
• Don't talk on the Tube. (whispering or speaking quietly is fine) Usually when this happens the locals glare at you from over their newspaper and you can hear their unspoken Stupid Americans. 
• Cheers
• Cheers is often used to replace the word thanks. Sometimes said when someone is squeezing passed you on the tube or when you give them something. Sometimes when you say it to someone in your American accent it sounds a bit weird and you get an odd look in return. 

Anyway, those are the thoughts I have for right now. I will be back shortly to tell you about my Fantastic week!

The Tower of London!

Today we were on our way to the Tower of London when we were hit by a crazy downpour for a solid two minutes. Then of course right before we reached the tube station, the rain let up and we were just left in our now soaked jeans (and in my soaked boots). So we had the privilege of sitting on the tube with wet trousers and rain soaked hair, thankfully, once we reached the Tower Hill Tube exit the sun came out a bit and we could air dry.

Now, I already had the opportunity to go to The Tower of London when I visited in the fall of 2013, but it was fun to go again! Fun fact: the Tower of London has been a tourist attraction since the late 17th century and is one of the oldest (man made) visited places in the world! The Tower used to be the place that the royals lived in the early centuries, it also held prisoners of war and large wild animals. But now, the Tower houses the royal jewels, lots of old armor, and of course, the famous Ravens. We spent a good two and a half hours wandering around reading about history. I'm probably going to go on a fact rant and you will probably learn more about the Tower than you will want to know, but history buff here! Since the building of the Tower, it has only been broken into once, and it was by a large group of peasants during the 19th century who were upset about the increase in taxes. The Tower of London is supposedly haunted by the ghosts of Anne Boleyn, the Princes in the Tower, and a Grizzly Bear. *Side note the Princes in the Tower story:  Richard III placed his two young nephews in the tower and rumored to have killed them so that he could become King. He was King for a short period (don't remember how long) but by then the boys had vanished. In recent discoveries of the Tower, they found a chest buried in one of the walls that held the skeletons of two young boys believed to be the two princes. 

 The Tower of London from across the Thames

 Strangely enough if you put all the money together, they form the picture of a shield. 

 Wouldn't be the Tower without a little death right? Although that is a creepy executioner's mask.

I don't think I could describe the size of these Ravens to you, they are enormous. My guess would be is that they are bigger than my head and they are pretty intimidating. When the rest of the wild animals were removed from the Tower to the London Zoo, the Ravens remained and now 6 are typically kept on the grounds at all times. It has been said that if the Ravens ever leave the Tower that England will fall, hopefully that won't happen for a long time.

 The awesome guard standing outside the crown jewels.

Entrance to the Crown Jewels

Unfortunately, they won't let you take any pictures of the inside of the vault, my guess is for security purposes, but you could probably look some of them up online! Fun Fact: The estimated value of the crown jewels (including the gold plates and coronation dining ware) is said to be in excess of $32 billion. 

That was the most exciting thing we did today! I'm pretty worried for church tomorrow! It's going to be a bit of a trip to get there and I'll be on my own, but I think it'll be good for me! Hopefully I'll be able to get out of my comfort zone and meet some new people. School starts on Monday, so that will be fun to get used to as well! 

I Wish...

Monday

Today was a hard day for me, I said goodbye to my dad at the airport:( I skipped out on my orientation at Westminster so that I could go with him to the airport, check his bags and wait around until it was time for him to pass through security. I was so grateful that he was able to accompany me to England for my first couple of days abroad. I think he rather enjoyed it and I think he plans on coming back now that I've given him the traveling bug. Don't ask me why, but we didn't take a picture at the airport. I plan on being better about that!

TODAY

WOW!!! Today was a crazy day, I convinced my roommates to accompany me to the National Gallery found in Trafalgar Square. I really wanted to go to the National Gallery because they had several Van Gogh and Monet paintings on display! I was able to find them, but not after getting lost once or twice. The entire building is HUGE! I have no idea how many paintings are in the NG, but I would guess over 200.

The Water Lilly Pond by Claude Monet

 The front of the national gallery from Trafalgar Square

 Water Lilies by Claude Monet

 Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh

 Wheat field by Vincent Van Gogh

While I'm not a crazy art lover, I do appreciate a good painting, especially one by the more famous artists. You know the ones, the ones that we are always taught about in art masterpiece in elementary school. Yeah I pay attention! (Plus Van Gogh was in an episode of Doctor Who, it's one of my favorites)

After the NG we went to the Borough Market! We went later in the day so there weren't as many people and some of the vendors had shut down, but it was still an amazing experience. There was fresh food EVERYWHERE! One of the first vendors we passed was a fruit and veggie stand, there were quite a few of those. Another couple of stands sold fresh meat, like an entire fish just laying on ice in the open air. My favorites were the chocolate or sweet vendors, especially when they had samples. I was particularly surprised by the number of cheese vendors there were (this stands also gave out samples, but I was too scared to try any cheese I didn't know.) (Speaking of cheese, I bought cheddar cheese at the supermarket yesterday and it was WHITE!!! What the heck?) There were a couple of oil stands and an entire stand just dedicated to olives.  I definitely plan on going back multiple times to try the delicacies there!

 This entire cheese wheel was probably as big as a tire

 Dessert, my favorite meal!

This was a bakery that offered lessons on how to bake bread next to the market

The final exciting thing that we did today was wait in line for 3 hours for this...

YES!!! While we weren't first in line for the red carpet, we got to see as Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and James Cordon got out of their cars and walk the red carpet. They had the soundtrack blaring the entire time and it sure got me pumped to watch the movie (No, I haven't seen it, I've been rather busy and it only came out in the UK today) It was so much fun to see the stars, although it was VERY cold, I could barely feel my toes after we left. We met a guy who said he's been doing stuff like this for 40 years and has over 200 autographs and pictures with stars (including ALL 12 doctors!!!) He informed us that the Avengers premier would be sometime in April (which I plan on going to!) and that we should wait in line to get wristbands to get front row standing room at the BAFTAs. He said that you have to get in line between 12-3 in the morning to wait for tickets until 3 in the afternoon, but its worth it. We'll see if that actually happens, that's a long time waiting in line and I'm sure it'll be very cold. 

Sorry today has been mostly pictures, but more to come, maybe not tomorrow, but hopefully by the weekend!

"Wishing Only Wounds the Heart" -Wicked

Friday

Today was pretty fun! Dad and I went to the Tower Bridge and walked around the Tower of London and walked the bank of the Thames. Then we travelled to St. Paul's Cathedral, where Princess Di was married and where Churchill's funeral was held (right across from St. Paul's is the Millennial Bridge, also known as the Wibbly Bridge. This bridge can be seen in the 6th Harry Potter movie when the Death Eaters destroy the bridge) 

Friday night my dad surprised me with tickets to WICKED!!! I've never seen the play before and neither had he, but we both really loved it!!! The special effects and the music was amazing, but the singing was even better (don't ask me who was playing whom, I don't know names). I plan on going to see it again when it comes to ASU Gammage in the fall! If you don't know anything about the play, it's a story that coincides with the Wizard of Oz and focuses more on Elphaba (the wicked witch of the west) and Galinda (who later becomes Glinda the good witch). If you haven't seen it, I would definitely recommend it!

Saturday

Today was move in day for my program. Everyone was supposed to fly in that day and meet at the airport. But I didn't want to have to meet at the airport, so we just went straight to my flat (which is located right down the street from Portabello road for you Bedknobs and Broomsticks fans). I got to meet my roommates MC, TP & HG as well and they seem like nice people and I can't wait to start exploring with them! It's going to be hard adjusting to living here for sure, but I think it'll be fun (ask me again in 3 months and we'll see if the answer is the same. Currently I don't have any pictures of the flat, but I'll make sure to post some soon. I think one of the things I'm going to have to get used to is living so close to a main road. At home we don't have any cars that come driving down the street at 2 am. But there are lots of cars that drive past our window during the night and for me (a light sleeper) it's very hard to sleep! Hopefully I'll get used to it. 

A big difference that the UK and the US have are the size of things: smaller flats, smaller cars, and smaller BOILERS!!! Thats right! We were told that our hot water showers can be no longer than 10 minutes because after that, the hot water runs out. (No wonder Europeans don't shave, they don't have any time!) Once we've used up the hot water, we have to wait 30 minutes for the boiler to fill up with hot water again! Good thing I shower at night so I don't have to really wait for anyone. Thankfully, we've found a bunch of goodies left over from previous residents hidden away in closets such as: 3 hairdryers, 4 straighteners, and 3 curling rods. This is nice because now I won't have to go buy one for myself!

Sunday

Today we had our first orientation at one of the Westminster campus's and meet other students from the program. After the orientation, we went on a double decker bus tour throughout London which was rather fun, but I couldn't hear the speaker very well, so I don't really know anymore than I did before the tour. But I did find out some interesting things! The person in the center of Trafalger square is not Napoleon, however much it looks like him. Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the tower, not the tower itself. 6 million people ride the Tube a DAY! (Which is greater than the population of Minnesota) and in 2013 the Tube celebrated it's 150th birthday AND the fish and chip is not the most popular dish in London anymore, it has been replaced by the Chicken Tikka Masala (which I have yet to try). 

On our bus tour we also drove past Oxford street (one of the busiest shopping streets in London), the bank that was used to film the front of Gringotts, and we passed the university some of us will be taking classes in (yes I am one of those students). Actually, we were able to find out most of our schedules for the semester. Although this week we have individual orientation to make sure that our schedule is right. So far my classes run from Monday-Wednesday (4 day weekends!!!) and I have Yoga, Intro to Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and The London Blitz (A history class, YAY!)

I got to meet up with my dad again today and we did some more exploring. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get tickets to the Arsenal game today, but we did manage to get to the stadium right as the game was letting out (bad idea). We were the two fish swimming against the current and the current was 60,000 strong. We got some pictures (of course!) and we vowed we'd be back to watch an actual match!

On the way back from the stadium (Arsenal has an entire tube stop named after them), we stopped in King's Cross to go to Platform 9 3/4! There was a bit of a queue (thats how the British say line), but we kinda snuck in from the side so dad could get a picture. I'll come back later when the line isn't as long. 

And then, perhaps my favorite stop of the day...Euston Square. Which may not mean much to some, but to me it was a lot. (I started to tear up getting off the tube stop, don't ask me why, that just happens when I get really excited about something) Drum roll please....

Please ignore the rubbish bags on the ground

YES my fellow Sherlock fans!!! This is the flat that they use to film 221b Baker Street!!! It was really weird seeing it at night in with no one around, but it was here! The weird thing is that this street is actually called North Gower street and the number isn't even 221, it's actually like 187. The numbers are attached to a block of wood, which is then put on the door which then comes off when they are filming I believe. I was really excited to be there and even more excited to find out that they are starting to film the Christmas special sometime this month, so if I'm lucky I might be able to see Martin Freeman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Amanda Abbington!!! Fingers Crossed!!!