Day 30- May 28th

Today started off with an absolutely rousing round of classes. We talked about the relationship of nature and theology and how art communicates this relationship. (Threw this in so I could prove I'm not JUST vacationing and  partying whilst I'm here) 

Afterwards I really wanted to go get tickets to The Lion King, but everyone else wanted to stay in and do homework. I peaced out on that, and set out to go get tickets on my own. Unfortunately, the weather was quite horrid today with some nice heavy rain showers, and I was supposed to meet up with Whitney for afternoon tea a half hour after I left. So I booked it to the tube (which was delayed 10 min), transferred, got off, made a wrong turn, met the only unhelpful direction giver I've encountered since being here, made another wrong turn, found my way, bought my ticket, ran (literally) to the tube (I was 15 min late at this point), texted Whitney to let her know I was on my way, got on the wrong train, got on the right train, thought I lost my phone (it was in my hand), got off the tube, and ran to the Orangery in Kensington Gardens. Whitney and I had planned to get all cute and fancy for tea, so I was quite disappointed with myself when I showed up in my wet, neon shoes, iHeart Radio t-shirt, my giant cardigan, and my nappy just-ran-through-the-rain hair. But when I got there they said that they had terminated the reservation and that Whitney hadn't shown up. In my frantic mind for some reason that meant that I should sit down and wait for Whitney. Well Whitney had sent me text while I was in the tube that said that she wasn't going to go and that she was leaving for a museum, but I didn't get it until I was at the Orangery . So I quickly texted her back and told her not go, that I'd meet her at home, and then we'd go back for tea. And luckily she hadn't left yet!!! So I booked it home and got cutified :)

Afternoon tea was so much fun!!! The Orangery was so classy! We sat in this big, white room with giant windows, floral decor, beautiful china, and handsome waiters. We had a blast sipping our hot chocolate and eating finger sandwiches, biscuits, pastries, and macaroons. And right when we walked out to go home, the rain had stopped and the sun had come out! But as we were taking pictures these two squirrels got a little too close for comfort and chased us for a good 8 feet, it was pretty terrifying... and hilarious. 

After dinner I got ready and went to The Lion King. After my tube encounter for today I wasn't so eager to revisit it, so I hailed myself a cap to treat myself on my solo night. The cab was really nice, and I could actually understand the driver! 

Lion King was so good!!! I absolutely loved it! Plus, I was sitting next to a mother and her daughter from Yorkshire who were out celebrating the daughter's 21 birthday. They were really nice and offered me a sweet (gummies) and chocolate. 

Then I came home and turned in a quiz. 

Day 29- May 27th

To kick off my last week in London town, Whitney, Brooke, and I took a trip to the Harry Potter set! We're  really starting to get the hang of this whole urban travel thing. After the tube, a train, and a bus we made it to the magical world of Harry Potter. I love me some Harry Potter, but I'll admit that I'm not a  super fan. I thought the books were great and went to most of the midnight premires, but oh baby, I might be a super fan after today!!! Even the intro got me all excieted! I was so excited that I busted out a small (ok, not really that small) dance move when I heard that we could walk through the orginal sets, that the tour guide pointed me out (in a group of 100 people) and said, "That's the best reaction I've seen to that ever." 

Plus we had the surprise of being there for Animal week. I got to see animals that actually played Hermione's cat, Hagrid's dog, and even (wait for it) Hedwig (Harry's owl)!!! Be jealous. 

We got ourselves some Butterbeer (delish), rode some broomsticks, took some pics with Dobby, wandered down Diagon Alley (SOOOO COOL), got some pictures taken by nicest, most HP loving Japanese girls who were cracking us up (lots of peace signs, high pichted giggling, and "one, two, tree"s) and finished off with the model that they used to shoot all the exterior scenes of the castle (which took up an entire room). It was incredible. You walk into this giant room with dramatic HP music and lighting to see this incredibly detailed model... it was quite the moment :)

Then we headed back home to get some food. Here begins the worst series of decisions that I've made the entire trip. We walked to High Street Kensington (really cool actually) and saw all kinds of cute stores and restaurants. We went to Wagamama's for lunch (ate an entire pad thai by myself), then went to My Old Dutch Pancake House for a giant Nutella strawberry pancake (which we shared) and also each got our own milk shake (delicious, but definitely not the best decision), and then as we walked toward to the tube Brooke saw a Ben's cookies and thought it was a novelty (there's one in SLC) and despite my protests the next thing I knew I was shoving cookies in my mouth. Then we came home, did our laundry, took a nap, bought our tickets for the London Eye, and Paige and I headed out to walk around Holland park. We didn't quite make it to the park, but the neighborhoods we walked through were beautiful!

After our adventure, we met up with Whitney and Brooke at a place called Tortilla (depite the variety of food in London they only have two Mexican Restaraunts, and the workers speak French instead of Spanish), and then Whitney Brooke and I took off for the eye. We were worried about being late for our tickets, but there were only 5 peopel adhead of us when we got there! Talk about amazing (the Eye is always packed).

We went right as the sun was setting, and the lights in Big Ben were turning on. It was so beautiful! The weather had been warm and clear all day, so we had a perfect view. Then we walked along the South Bank, took lots of adorable pictures, and finished the night off with the best bad decision of the day... Amorino :)

Day 28- May 26th

Last day in the Catford ward! 

Admist all of the juicing of each day that's been happening, turns out I do have some responsiblities... like giving a talk in church. Luckily I had been assigned the 13th ariticle of faith, which I had given a stake youth council talk on a while ago. And especially luckily, Ali was willing to search through the computer for me to find it. Not so luckily I had not heeded Dad's advice to save a doc every two mintues and only had half of it... I actually had to write half of a talk ;)

Our group was actually on time this morning (a unique occurrence), which was good since we were the entire church for today with 3 of us giving talks, 1 musical number, and a RS and primary lesson. But our tube was held, our train delayed, our transfer train cancelled, and our train stop closed. So we took a new train, got on a bus, and (2 and a half hours later) walked in right as sacrament meeting was finishing. They were really nice about the whole thing, they had just asked people bare testimonies, and we enjoyed our last day at this ward. But you can't say that I didn't go out with a bang. I saw my boy Georgie across the chaple and threw him the peace sign, but with the back of my hand facing him (you know gangster style). Well turns out that that is another way of giving a Brit the bird... oops :)

We made our way home without any incidents which was entirely due to a very nice lady who led us onto the train, and to the right tube station. 

When we got home I caught up on some much needed sleep, ate dinner, had a hoot at the talent show we had, watched a nature documentary as a class, and got some sweet wifi so that I could actually talk to Mom and Dad :)

Day 27- May 25th

There is a new play out with Judi Dench (M from James Bond) and Ben Wilshaw (Q from Skyfall) called Peter and Alice. It's about an encounter between the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland and the inspiration for Peter Pan. I've been dying to see it, but it's completely sold out. But I did some digging and I found out that they sell 10 pound day of tickets!!! So McKenna (one of my roommies) and I woke up at 5:30, left at 5:45 and got in line at 6:15! I'm an early morning line waiting pro now, and I was looking pretty good in my double layer jeans, three sweaters, jacket, scarf, and gloves. But the wait was worth it! We got tickets!!! I may have busted out a victory dance outside of the box office, which turns out is quite the oditiy over here. Based upon the sounds of their laughter at me,  I'm sure I brightened the morning of a few chilly Brits today. Plus we could buy two per person, so McKenna and I each got an extra one and some girls that couldn't makeit this morning paid us 15 pounds for them (you can take the girl out of America, but you can't take America out of the girl). 

Then Paige, Ashley, Maggie, Whitney, Brooke and I went to Westfield Mall. It was huge!!! And it had the best pretzels I've ever had (shout out to Mom). Then we went to Camden Market and got our bargain on. Ali, be excited, be very excited. 

To kick off our Peter and Alice celebrations we went to the pub right next to the theater with Haley (aka woodland creature), Chloe R (yes, we have resorted to Bachelor abreivations in the house), Katie, and Lindsey for dinner. On the way to the pub I got really excited and got a huge smile on my face and started saying, "Guys, guys! We're going to see Judi Dench!!!" Which caused the bouncer outside of a stake house to say, "Now that's life! That's what I'm talking about!"

Pub food is my new favorite thing! I got myself some bangers and mash (sasages and mashed potatoes in gravy) and boy was it delish!!! Can't wait for two weeks of pub food on the road!!!

Peter and Alice was the weirdest, deepest, most bizarre, and most incredible and beautiful play I've ever seen. Judi Dench was incredible, and the rest of the cast was amazing. I loved it and it was definitely worth all the planning and waiting!!! 

After that, we went to my favorite place in all of London, Amorino! We walked through SoHo (it was still lgiht outside) and saw everyone celebrating with mini brass bands for the football game, a hari krishna group dancing through the street, partiers, and the sun set; all while eating the best ice cream in the world. But while I was eating my cone I did have the realization that this was my last saturday night in London, and I got a bit sad; but then I ate more ice cream and was good :)

Today was definitely one of the best days I've had here :) 

Day 26- May 24th

Today was AMAZING!!! Brooke, Whitney and I took London by storm (literally, today was the worst weather we've had yet. Nice and cold and rainy)! We started off with a tour of the Tower of London, which has a bad rap. All I had ever heard was that the crown jewels were there and that there was a lot of torture that took place there. The crown jewels were cool (I personally liked the  V&A jewelry exhibition better) but there was only a three minute walk through on torture. Turns out they only ever tortured 80 of the prisoners that were ever kept there. But they had lots of cool armor and towers to see. After about an hour and a half, none of us could feel our hands, so we took a quick trip to Starbucks for some hot chocolate before going to Harrods to find some lunch.

Harrods was the most incredible place I've ever been! It is massive, and beautiful, and I don't know how anyone knows their way around. We started with the main food hall but we couldn't find anything that really tickeled our fancy, so we enjoyed looking around and then went up a floor to the Italian restaurant Brooke had been wanting to go to. IT WAS SO GOOD!!!

We got seats at the bar for some great people watching, ordered ourselves some pesto pene and margarita pizza, and basked in the italian serenading from the chef. Conviently there is the best ice cream bar you've ever been to right across from the italian restaurant and we decided to give it ago. Originally we all agreed to share a sunday, but somehow it quickly escalated into each of us getting our own sake/sunday... Brooke and I even got the same one! And it was the most beautiful sunday I had ever seen. Nutella ice cream, chocolate ice cream, vanilla soft serve ice cream, whipped cream, a chocolate straw, a wafer, a bon bon, a chocolate cup filled with warm Nutella and wafer, and chocolate sauce just to finish it off... oh, and it was the size of my head. The sad/impressive part is that before I knew it I only  had two bites of it left. I had eaten the entire thing by myself without even knowing it!!! But, man, was it worth it.

Then we wobbled to the gift shop, got myself a new Harrod's wallet, headed towards Tiffany's, saw a room full of fresh off the runway dresses (definitely will be revisiting it), and tried on some 16,000 pound rings :) Whitney and Brooke had never tried a Tiffany ring on before and I am quite proud to be the one to show them how it feels to have a house on their finger ;)

After that life changing "astheic experience" at Harrod's we went back home for some food and I headed out with Kassidy, Steph, Kenzie, and Sierra to Les Miserables. Buying tickets for this show was one of the first things we did whent we got here, so we've been looking forward to this for a long time. To see it in it's orginal theater, with an incredible Jean Val Jean,  Javier, and Fontine, on a Friday night in London was like living in a dream!

Day 25- May 23rd

After my farthest run yet and class, I got together Maggie and Whitney to go to Buckingham Palace. We took some great photos, tried to sneek into the Queen's Gallery, then I went back to the Natural History Museum to acutally do my assignment. 

It was so sweet! Maggie and I walked around the giant mamals exhibit and then I headed to the Dinosaur wing. It was sick. They had all kinds of cool stuff, plus I saw the cutest little girl. Every time she saw something she'd gasp and put her hand over her mouth. Super cute. 

I made it home in time for dinner and then made my classy harem pant debut at Beethoven's 9th symphony in St. Paul's cathedral with Steph, Sierra, Kassidy, and Kenzie. The symphony was fantastic (and surprisingly short), and for the times when my mind started to wander,  the catherdral was beautiful enough to keep me occupied. 

Day 24- May 22nd

Today was a day trip to Hampton Court palace, King George's favorite palace. I ended up hanging out with Paige, Whitney, and Brooke (my bunkmate) and boy did we have a good time :) 

We started out with the Secrets of the Bedchamber exhibit (creepy name, but pretty cool). One part let you lay down on these divinely comfortable matress and watch a movie on the ceiling (while you try not to think about the billion other people who laid all over them). Unforuntately our relaxation was inturrupted by some French teenagers, and we continued on our way. After tearing up the castle we headed out to the gardens for some major picutre taking. Brooke has a pretty sweet camera and we loaded up with the photo shoots, fake laughing and all. 

Then we got food at a really good restaraunt called Blubeckers. We realized that we had all forgotten what it was like to eat in a real place! It was a brand new experience going to the bathroom where you didn't have to worry about catching a disease as well as doing your thang.

Then we caught the train, I head to Boots( a convince store), came home, found out how to get tickets for Peter and Alice (a play Judi Dench is in AND found a group to go with me!), took a nap, went to Mullberry pizza and went to War Horse as a group. 

War Horse was quite the interesting experience. The staging was amazing! The horses were absolutely increble, and when the plot wasn't really doing it for you you could always just watch the three men manning this giant horse puppet. The story line was not my cup of tea, but I'm so happy we went. It was really cool and got me super pumped to go see Lion King (hopefully on Tuesday!).