What I'm Going to Miss...

What I Am Going to Miss About London:

Markets on Saturdays. Going out and shopping anytime you want. Running through the parks. Yogurt covered banana chips. Going to a show any night of the week. Milka Chocolate. Snog. Accents. The tube (when its not crazy crowded)

My cute primary kids. Well behaved dogs. Flowers in bloom. Traveling with 40 people. London lovies.

What I'm Looking Forward to Back Home:

My family. Mexican food. Self-serve frozen yogurt. Driving. Friends. Knowing what is going on in the world. Sleeping in my own bed. Having a clean open fridge.

London Lasts

I’m getting to that point here where there are all these last things in London I want to do and I will make sure they happen-even if it means going solo. For instance (and my blog readers are going to think I’ve hit a new loner low) but I really wanted to see Phantom the other night and everyone else had already seen it, so I decided to just go on my own. And no shame..it turned out to be great cuz I got awesome seats and loved the play. I also went to check out the original Boden store the other day by myself to get my graduation dress (which is very cute might I add). And today I went for a little beautiful Hyde Park bike ride free for 30 minutes!

But, just to reassure I do hang out with people here’s some highlights of things I did with others this week:

Grenwich: a cute little village right along the Thames that is famous for its maritime history and royal place where Henry VIII and Elizabeth I lived. Unfortunately, it was a little rainy that day so not the best time for sight seeing but still a nice place to go and a great park to walk around in

St Pauls: where we went to see Evensong (a mens choir), which was a really neat worship experience. And there I am below right outside of it.

The Childrens Hour: we got to see Keira Knightley live in a play and there she is up close & personal where we did a little creeping on her afterwards

Abbey Road: you can’t come to London without getting hooked on Beatle mania so we had to go to Abbey Road to re-enact their famous footsteps there

and of course representing the Asians pose

London Eye: this was amazing and such a fun thing to do at night especially cuz we had our own pod. It was great just having time to overlook the city we have lived at for the past 4 months and reminisce on good times we have had together

Oh London lasts I will miss you...and especially these girls!

Sweet solo trip to Sweden

I feel like such an independent little traveler. I went to Stockhom Sweden by myself this weekend to check out a company my dad has done some work with and wanted me to check out.

As much as I love everyone in the center i have to say it was kind of nice to just get away. This was a 1st for me not traveling with my fam, friends or a group and it all went successfully.

I was mostly there checking out some work sites & talking about their business. But Friday night I had some time just to myself where I had a few firsts:
1) 1st time I've ever eaten dinner at a restaurant by myself. I got good sushi & just ate at the bar but I've secretly always wanted to go out to eat alone to see what it feels like. The verdict is it wasn't too bad but def wouldn't do it on a regular basis or in a place where I may see people I know.
2) 1st time staying in a hotel room by myself which consisted of me putting my robe & slippers on, eating chocolate & dancing around to glee! Ha it was fabulous after living in a room with 14 girls for 4 months to just have time to chill on my own!

Well that was my last little trip & next time I'll be at the airport will be to go back home to the USA! Pretty bittersweet. But below my friends though is just sweet. Yes that is a Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cookie Dough ice cream bar I ate in the comforts of my hotel room-so good!

Finally Football

Finally we got to go to an England “football” match! We have done many shows, plays, opera, ballet-but unfortunately for the 6 guys of the group no sporting events until now. We got to go to an England vs. Ghana soccer game and boy was it crazy. It is such a big part of the English culture that was really fun for us to be a part of. We went to the Wembley Stadium that holds over 80,000 people (yes over 3 times the size of BYU & yes I was a little crowd claustrophobic) but it was worth it. We dressed up in England colors and there we are all below-in England red (not the Utes red might I add)

It turned out to be a tied game 1-1, but it was still awesome to see the fans from each side go crazy when their team scored. So glad we got to have a real European "football" experience before leaving. Go England!

Tate Modern

I loved the Tate Modern Museum I went to by myself on Monday. I went by myself: 1) because it is nice to have just “my time” living with so many and 2) looking at modern art pieces I kind of like just finding meaning behind it on my own. For those who don’t know, the Tate Modern is a gallery of amazing modern and contemporary art pieces. It is the most visited modern art gallery with around 4.7 million visitors each year! Yes it is different, but I loved the creativity and stories behind the pieces. Maybe it is coming from San Fran where the MOMA is or growing up in a household with a lot of modern art pieces, but I really have come to love modern art even with all its uniqueness.

The picture of me below is in front of Henri Matisse’s “The Snail” that we actually have a copy of in our house. I love it because it is one of Matisse’s last pieces in his series of works called the “cut-outs.” Matisse was confined to his bed through illness but had his assistants cut out sheets of paper in gouache, which he then cut out (talk about dedication). I love the vibrant colors yet the simplicity in this painting. It dominated the room it was in at the Tate Modern and really drew me in. So overall a great little adventure at the Tate Modern for my last museum of my Fine Arts class!

Biking & Stratford

Well the sun is shining here in London town which means people our out having picnics, walking their dogs, playing with their kids, jogging, paddle-boarding (you get the picture). And we are out biking in Hyde Park! It was so nice to just rent bikes for free for 30 minutes in the park and ride by the Serpentine river. Check out how cool we look below too..I think we are all just ecstatic to be taking pictures without our big coats on finally!

Friday we took a half day trip to Stratford upon Avon. We saw Shakespeare's birthplace, the house he lived in and his grave site. Shakespeare was such a genius and prodigy for his time and it was neat to be right at the place where he thought of such radical ideas. I loved learning more about his marriage, his family, his thoughts and overall just his life.
Also Stratford was a really cute little town that we had fun just wandering around. Then that night we got to see King Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Company. I must admit it was a LONG play-3 hrs & 20 minutes, but I did my best to appreciate it and the acting was incredible. So that was our last bus ride trip together as a group-kind of bittersweet...

Brugge & France

It's a good thing we didn't stay in Brugge any longer or else I may have just ended up taking permanent residence. It is the cutest most quaint little European town. It has the appeal of Venice with it's canals, the charm of Prague with the city square and the amazing treats of France with chocolate shops, waffles & frites everywhere you turn. Combine those traits all together & you get Brugge!

We were only there about a day but as our professor said it was kind of like "our vacation spot" (although I feel like we are on one constant vacation ha) But we had time to just roam the cobblestone streets, go on a boat ride, tour the chocolate museum & walk up 360 stairs to the top of the Belfry tower.

We then went to Iep where we did a great tour of the Flanders Museum learning more about World War 1 where the neutral territory of trench warfare took place in Belgium.

Wednesday we went to to Amiens France where we went to the largest cathedral in all of Europe! If you think notre dame is great-this is even bigger & better (but unfortunately it doesn't have the bell tower & Quasimodo appeal)

Our last but not least stop on our France adventure was the Sommes battlefield. We had a chance to walk around the trench warfare sites right where the fighting between France, Britain and Germany took place. The battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the first World War & where the British suffered the most casualties. My appreciation of World War 1 greatly increased being right where this horrific battle took place. I tried to imagine the fighting & lives lost at the time on that exact field we were walking on which made it come much more to life.

Well that concludes our group traveling adventures of "March Madness." It will be nice to be back in our home of London for the remainder of my time here. We have a list of things we need to make sure we do before leaving so the fun & adventures will continue..as they did with riding bikes in Hyde Park with our shades on today after our religion class!