tracks...

guess what i saw today... airplane tracks!!!! most people probably think, wow why are you so excited to see an airplane in the sky?? and i would tell them, well you see- planes are in the air today leaving tracks, so that means i can be in the air tomorrow. yes- tomorrow! i am going to finally be home tomorrow- just as long as everything goes as planned. i have been on the phone with american airlines for the past 48 hours pretty much shuffling flights around. just in case you need to call american airlines, the number is 1800-433-7300. i have it memorized, and i know all the loopholes to get through the annoying voice automated crap. all my roommates have heard me say for the past few days is "agent" that the best way to get what you want. i have had probably 6 different bookings itineraries and finally- hopefully this one will work out. i love london, but i am very excited to be home. my fingers are crossed.

eat...

today i went to eat (that is the name of the cafe) and had the best panini-cranberry, brie, turkey, and rocket. it was sooo yummy. i was there for like three hours reading by book- the wedding... and i finished it... yay! i love the feeling of finishing a book. (it doesn't happen very often)

tulip festival...

we got to go to the tulip festival at trafalgar square. it was a giant i love holland party, and everyone was in orange except me! oops. there was a lot of fun things going on , but not as many tulips as i had hoped. we spent most of the time watching pole vaulters, but we also sat on the stairs and listened to the live band and enjoyed the sun. my favorite part was the tulips made out of balloons. i really wanted one but the line was far too long. it was a very enjoyable afternoon.

Eyjafjallajokull....


believe it or not... that is the name of the volcano that has been erupting in iceland since last wednesday, and has prevented me from going home. i had a flight home saturday, but it got canceled along with hundreds of other flights in europe because the ash from Eyjafjallajokull has ruined the air quality and poses a threat to all aircrafts. luckily, i got resceduled to leave today at noon. i was expecting my flight to get canceled- but it jsut got delayed until 7:30 tonight. because of the delay, i would get to salt lake 15 minutes after my flight left for hawaii for school. mom did some hard work, and found a flight leaving dallas, that had a three hour layover in SLC, so i could make a bag swap and be on my way to hawaii on schedule. i woke up this morning just to find out that there was another explosion during the night, and that the volcano is showing signs of intensifying activity. i couldn't and wouldn't believe it! but then i got the friendly email notification that my flight for tonight has been canceled. i can't believe it! everything worked out so well despite the first cancellations. since i will not make it to hawaii in time for classes (they started yesterday) i will most likely have to withdraw. it is such a bummer, but i know that there is nothing i can do about it. thank you mother nature. i have been on hold with american airlines for the past hour, but i still have faith. i hope i can get back to the states soon! wish me luck!

cribs, london centre addition...

my time is up in london, and i have been meaning to post pictures of my "flat" this whole time- so forgive me... but better late than never. welcome to 27 palace court...


this is the parlor, where we have devotionals, and sometimes read. it is a designated "quiet area"


this is the formal dining room where the faculty eats dinner...

these are the doors to the classroom... yes, the classroom is right underneath my bed.

the stairs leading to my room....


dorm 3.... side one. it is a bit messy- but everyone was trying to pack and stuff. in my room there are a total of 14 girls.


this is our bathroom... with sinks and showers

these are our royal thrones... aka toilets. up the next set of stairs is dorm four and five. dorm one is on the main level, and dorm two is by the classroom!

the is the servery.... where we eat and have late night hangouts. and the lovely toaster... there is always toast, PB, jelly, and nutella for snacks. it is the best thing ever.

a night at koko...

right before finals, i went to a club called koko and saw the band of horses. oh my it was the perfect way to relax after working hard getting ready for finals. tyler ramsey opened for them- he was fabulous too. the band of horses has a song called "the great salt lake" and they played it! it made me feel like i was at home a little bit. the venue was so cool! it was in an old theater, but instead of seats, it was all standing on all the different levels. everything was red and gold and way fancy... of course it was way cool since they named the place after me. i am obsessed with that place, and this band! i can't stop listening to them. i got a cute koko shirt to remind me of the night! (there is a short clip of the great salt lake)

the british library...


i got to go to the british library. i loved it. the actual library is huge, and i didn't see the whole thing but i got to see the exhibition with all the old special documents. it was the last thing on my london list, and i finally got to go there. i got to see cool things like...

-the magna carta
-handel's messiah
-the original alice and wonderland
-leodardo's notebook

and even more! i didn't think that i would enjoy it that much, but i am so happy that i was able to see all of these neat documents. it was totally worth it.

tw0 places at once...

for our very last group outing, we took a cruise on the thames to greewich. it was such a beautiful day, and the perfect day for a boat ride. greenich was really neat. we got to see the prime meridian! this is the line of zero longitude, that separates the eastern and western hemispheres. this is also where greenwich meantime (gmt)/universal time originated from. i was looking forward to seeing the camera obscura there, but it was closed! i was so sad. i really enjoyed this day, because i learned all about gmt last semester in astronomy, and i was finally able to make a connection from a class that i took prior to my time here. everyone else here has had a ton of art history/humanities courses, so they know about lots of the things we see... unlike me, but i am learning so much everyday! oh... and the greenwich market was the best! we had lunch there, and it was so hard to decide what i wanted... there were so many tummy options! of course i decided on a buffalo burger with grilled onions and cheese. it was so yummy... i love burgers and markets.

{anna,me, leslie, arrin, alyssa, and reesa}

{the eye}
{gmt}

{sad day}
{the prime meridian}
{burg}

after the market, we had a fun photoshoot outside our flats. i love palace court, and can't believe it is already time to leave. it has gone by so fast. i have two days left. sad. sad. sad.

{my humble abode for the last few months.}

off to hogwarts....

{click to enlarge}

i got to go to platform 9 3/4... cool huh? this is what harry potter uses to get to hogwarts. we were all going to dress up in our harry potter attire, but ran out of time. we got fun pictures though... that is what matters!

{i am mary's owl}
{off we go!}

temple trip...

we finally got to go to the london temple to do baptisms last week... i loved every minute of it. we had to take a coach to get there, but it was so worth it. the temple is in a small town on the outskirts of london, called surrey. the whole drive was through farms and green feilds with baby sheep... it was so pretty. the perfect location for a temple. two temples in less than a week is good eh? i love the temple!

{opposite twins}

ireland...


tori, eliza, and i took a quick weekend trip to ireland after the trip to northern england with the group. we flew out of liverpool and got to dublin just in time for dinner. we checked into our cute hotel- the maldron, and went on the hunt for a place to eat... we were all starving. it was good friday, so the whole city was dead, but we still managed to have a fun night, and ate a delicious dinner at hard rock cafe. we love hard rock, and hard rock loves us! all the music videos they played were so good, and we ate way way way to much- but it was totally worth it.

{love all, serve all}{milkshakes, a juicy burger, and dessert too!}

the next morning, we woke up at 5 a.m. to get to the train station in time for our tour to blarney castle! i was so tired, but luckily i had a three hour train ride to sleep! we got to blarney and got to kiss the blarney stone- once you kiss it, you are supposedly blessed with eternal eloquence, and good luck. the rest of the tour was not what we expected. we were hoping to see more of the contryside, but instead we got a tour of the irish towns of cork and cobh. despite our dissapointment about the coutryside, we did get to see where the i phone is made, a neat cathedral, the irish coast, and the last port of call for the titanic!

{attractive?}

the train ride back into dublin was beautiful. we got to see a lot of the green irish country, and even though it was from the train- it was still so pretty! we got back to the hotel, and got dinner there... believe it or not it was delicious. after we went to the temple bar area and experience the irish nightlife. we tried to go into this famous pub- st. john ghogarty's, and the bouncer asked us our age, and we told him, and he said... "sorry you have to be 21-" thats a lie! he probably just thought we were younger than 18 or something- but it wasn't a big deal... we just we went in the back door! the next morning, we went to easter mass. that was a really cool experience. i was a little bummed we missed out on confrence, but i can't wait to read them when i get home. after mass, we went to the cutest little restraunt called elephant and castle. it was so good! after eating, we went and saw the blindside. that was my third time seeing it, and i still love it. it is definitley one of my favorite movies. it is so inspiring. if you haven't seen it, watch it! it is the best. i am so glad i had the opportunity to see ireland, even though it was a short trip. hopefully i'll make it back someday.

liverpool...

the last leg of the north trip was a little stop in liverpool. i loved it- it was very short but totally worth it. the night we got there, we just checked in and the hotel, then a few of us went to dinner at wagamama. it is this thai place that is sooo good. i forgot to say no shrimp in my dish... but i ate them anyway- (dad you owe me like 20 bucks! they were actually kinda cute shrimp... little baby ones the size of my thumb nail probably.) the next morning we met as a group on albert dock. there was a statue there that the church donated of a mormon family preparing to set sail to america. this was especially cool for me, because i know that my ancestors did that! my great grandma left from liverpool as a small girl, and because of her, and her family's courage to immigrate- i am alive!

{me and rachel blending in with the statue}

{me and tori on the dock!}

after this, tori and i went to the maritime museum, and the slavery museum. this was sooo moving. i really loved it. each day i find myself being more and more intrigued by serious and sad things- i guess it is because i just really feel for the people that had to go through things- and try to put myself in their shoes. it's a good reminder of what i do have- i have so much respect for them. something that really stuck out to me, was somthing that the african american athlete jesse owens said after he won four gold medals in the 1936 olympic games in berlin... "i wasn't invited to shake hands with hitler, but i wasn't invited to the whitehouse to shake hands with the president either..." now we have an african american as president... look how far we have come. there was also a section on human trafficking- i have learned a lot about this in the bast few months, and it is so sad. after learning even more, i became more motivated to raise awareness. the hour i spent in this section of the museum is something i will never forget. i just realize how lucky i am to live in the time that i do, and i also know that there are so many people in the world that need help, and i need to do my best to help them.

{some good quotes from the museum... click to enlarge.}

the next stop was the long awaited beatles museum. it was a lot of fun! it was an audio-guide tour, and i have a hard time with those sometimes... i am not very patient- but it was still fun to do. i love the beatles so much. seeing all the album covers reminded me of my childhood- and my brothers' giant c.d. case with a substantial beatles collection. the gift shop was awesome too- i got some great souvenirs- and also some great pictures. i love you john, ringo, paul, and george.

{chillin with ringo- my body looks funky}

{how bout them pants?? they wouldn't fit so they are just hanging from my wasit}


{ok- so i am a little obsessed with the bobble heads- they are just so cute. }
{imagine}
{john lennon's piano. legit. }