London July 6th-July 10th

July 6th, Friday:
Today no class. Therefore, I slept in. I eventually woke up...at...noon. But at least I did wake up! Soon after waking up, Anna, Kiley (not Kylie), Kim, and I went to shop in Covent Gardens (It's mid-year/end of season sale time...so EVERYTHING is on sale...shopshopshop). Parents you will be happy, because I didn't spend any money (at Covent Gardens that is). Then, we made our way to Knightsbridge, because I've been DYING to go to HARRODS! So exciting!...Yes I know. Harrods was only AMAZING! You'll have to see the pictures below to fully see why Harrods is so incredible. So picture that, but then keep in mind that it's even BETTER in person! I ate the most AMAZING salad ever! It was an AVACADO MANGO CHICKEN SALAD! Quite possibly rivals to be the best salad I've EVER had! I also got Squid Rings (like onion rings, but squid) and they were positively delightful! Well, knowing me, once I get to eating, there is no stopping me. I started to crave a smoothie. What did I do? I bought a ten dollar smoothie, but it was quite the amazing smoothie (but also a once-in-a-lifetime ten dollar smoothie). I didn't even get to shop at Harrods, because I soon realized that I had to rush back to the Center for dinner, because I was going to see WICKED (musical) right afterwards.
Rewind: A week before flying out to London, I wanted to go into the city and see Wicked SO SO SO bad, but I wasn't able to go...so just imagine how excited I was to go. You can't imagine, it's beyond imagination. See, I'm getting excited just talking about it that I can't even form coherent sentences. Back to Wicked, my seats were honestly not even that great. I did get to sit next to two fun people, Lexi and her friend Jordan that just came up for the weekend from Italy (he's from Michigan though). Anyway, Wicked was AMAZING! I'm definintely taking my family to go see it (on the parents though), right when I get back, or someday. Because, one can not possibly go through life not seeing it. It was SPECTACULAR! So, so, so good. I cried, it changed my view about the WHOLE Wizard of Oz story, and Elphaba's (sp?) character did such a fantastic job. Amazing acting and singing. I can rant and rave about how wonderful this play is for days. One more note though: my favorite song in the musical went something like "Because of you, I have changed for good." and "Popular" is fun too.
After Wicked was over, Lexi, Jordan, and I went to see Big Ben and Parliament at night, and then we took the tube to Hammersmith to bring Jordan to his hostel. (PS: first day since I got here where it didn't rain once all day!) Good night.

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July 7th, Saturday:
So, again I was able to sleep in, but this time I only slept until 10:30AM. When I woke up, I decided to head down to Portobello Market by myself. It was a GORGEOUS day out, and I needed a nice, quiet, personal walk. I walked down to where the fruit was. I LOVE fresh fruit, so I couldn't resist such a great purchase. I bought 3 mangos, 3 avacados, 5 oranges, and 3 bars of chocolate for only 5 pounds! AMAZING! I walked back to the Center for a meeting with my TA, and then Lexi and Jordan wanted me to go out with them back to Portobello Market for lunch. There was a YUMMY Ghannian vendor, so I just had to have some. I had fried plantains, and a chicken in peanut sauce meal (Ghannian food is DELISH)! Afterwards, I bought yogurt almonds and dried papaya, and I bought Krista a present. Yay!
After all the Portobello Market fun, we went to Hyde Park to see the Tour De France bikers! It's so awesome that I get to experience all these fun things, and who knows if I'll ever be able to do it again you know. It's just way fun being in that atmosphere. Anyway, that was fun soley because HELLO it's the TOUR DE FRANCE!
And I knew this would happen, see when I wait a couple days before writing in my blog, I forget a lot. Like, I can't even remember what I had for breakfast, so recalling all this information is just incredibly hard for me. Honestly, I really think after the Tour De France, I stayed in the rest of the day doing assignments and homework.

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July 8th, Sunday:
Church day! We got to church EARLIER this time, and right when I opened the program, what do I see? "Bearing of the Testimonies of the BYU Students" with my name listed right next to it. Great. What a lovely surprise. Actually it went really well...and for some reason I felt the need to address a certain life experience of mine. I knew that a lot of the members probably work or go to school in an atmosphere where they are the only member. I wanted them to know that they aren't the only ones. In fact, they have a perception that there are a lot more members in America (which there are), but growing up in New Jersey, I was the only member in my school. I just felt like they needed to know that, and I reminded them that if they keep the commandments, and live true to the standards and morals we hold, then they will be blessed so much. I think they really appreciated hearing that, because a lot of people came up to me afterwards telling me "Thank you for your testimony". And, then in Elder's Quorum, one of the members referenced to my testimony during the lesson, I'm glad people could take something out of it. It was a special moment.
After we got home from church, there was a lot of reading to be done. It was such a nice day out and so Kiley and I went to Hyde Park with our towels, and laid in the sun, relaxed, and read 'Persuasion'.
Then, we had dinner, and after dinner, I organized a meeting all by myself for the people the want to travel to the continent for the long weekend we have. I was just getting so frustrated that people kept TALKING about their plans, but no one was actually acting upon and DOING. So, I decided to do something about it. So, I organized a meeting (even the professors attended). It went very well, and now (after the meeting I held) most of the people have their plane tickets already, and hotel accomodations figured out. FINALLY! It was actually a great experience doing that. The students thanked me for organizing something, and DOING something about it, because it probably never would have gotten done, and no one would have been going anywhere for the long weekend. The professors even complimented me, too. YAY. Now, July 25-28th I'll be in ROME, ITALY! Woooo, I can't wait!
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July 9th, Monday:
So, back to classes. Not much to say about this day. Other than, after class I went to the Bristish Library with a couple students and I saw some of the most AMAZING manuscripts and old...things. They had a special exhibit on display about old religious books. I saw some of the oldest versions of the Bible ever. It was so cool to see how many different types of the Bible there were before the King James Bible. My favorite part was that I got to see the DEAD SEA SCROLLS! It was so cool! It's like, you hear SO much about something, and then it's just astonishing when you get to see it in person! So, let me tell you some notes I took about the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were found between 1947-1956 in caves at Wadi Qumran. They date back to the mid 2nd Century BCE to 1st Century CE. Most of it is written in Hebrew and Aramaic. There was a Psalms fragment written on Sheepskin. The fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls I saw were Psalms 35. It read, "Ke-re 'ake-ah li hithalakhti..." which means, "I walked about as though it were my friend or my brother." WAY COOL I SAID! Other things I got to see were another one of Shakespeare's Folios, original notes from Leonardo DaVinci, Magna Carta, Beatle's Lyrics written by hand, etc.
After this my day way pretty much over, because I stayed in ALL night doing homework. Joy.

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July 10th, Tuesday:
Excursion Day! Okay, so first let me begin saying that I slept the WHOLE bus ride up to the first stop. One of the BEST sleepings (can I even say that?) ever...2.5 hours. Anyway, the first stop (Grandma pay attention)...was JANE AUSTEN'S HOUSE! It was actually very interesting. PS: All you Jane Austen lovers like Grandma, Donna, Mayree, and Cheryl...You are what we call 'Janeites'. Back on track now, I got to see the table that she wrote a lot of her work on (very tiny), and there was a lock of her brown hair that was framed, and it was a very nice house. Inside her bedroom she had a Chinese make-up box (Jane loved Chinese people! YAY)! Inside the Admiral's room (her brother), was a globe, and Philadelphia was spelled Filadelfia (I found that interesting).
After Jane Austen's home, we headed over to STONEHENGE! This was my FAVORITE part of the day. It's like, amazing how people got those stones up there a gazillion (okay, maybe not THAT long ago) years ago! I just found it to be so neat and interesting. What made the experience even better was the gorgeous weather we had today...AGAIN! WOOHOO! Basically, I guess I'm just really intrigued by a bunch of big rocks.
After Stonehenge...we went to Bath. (Grandma pay attention AGAIN!) I saw the street in Bath where in the movie 'Persuasion' Anne and Wentworth kiss at the festival. Back to Bath, I got to walk all around the Roman Baths, which was SOO AWESOME! Like, the draining system they used 2000 years ago (Yes, two THOUSAND) STILL works! Amazing! The water was green by now, and even though green in my favorite color, I don't think I want to bathe in it. Well, I'm glad the Romans thought of hygiene at all actually. Then, I went to some 'Pump Room' where you can taste the filtered water, or some sort of weird water. It is supposed to have a lot of minerals in it, but it's so gross and disgusting tasting...and it's scorching hot. Bleh! Becca, John, and I then decided to explore more of Bath. We went to Sally Lunn's house (she invented the bun...like the buns you eat)...so we got a bun. One word: Scrumptious! But of course, while Sean is enjoying his Sally Lunn Bun...other students from my group ran into Nicholas Cage and his family in a little food place in Bath. Apparently he is there to film 'National Treasure 2'...but ugh so jealous...I would have been SO excited to see him just walking around in Bath! Way cool!
Later at night, one of the Queen's gaurds (the big black furry hats and red coats) came over, because Ashley made friends with him on the street, and he said he would come over one day in all his apparel and take pictures with us, so that was interesting. I didn't have my camera, but someone took a picture and it's floating around somewhere.
For real...bedtime.