Last Full Week: April 3-9, 2011

I know it's like two weeks late, but this week was our last full week in the Centre and it was a BUSY one! STARTING WITH....

Day 89: SUNDAY

April 3rd

"A General Conference Marathon"

Because of the ridiculous time difference (8 hours at this point), there was no way we could watch General Conference on time. So, instead we took all of Sunday to enjoy all EIGHT hours of it. It started at 10 AM with the Saturday Morning session. Then, at 2 PM, we watched Saturday Afternoon.

Now, by this time, I'd had as much as I could handle. BUT, we still had two more sessions to watch!!

We ate dinner and then at 7 we started up Sunday Morning session. At this point, we were almost on the same schedule as Utah. So at 9, IMMEDIATELY following the morning sesh, we were able to stream the Afternoon session LIVE!! Woohoo!!

And that gave us all four sessions!! A real Marathon Event.

Day 90: MONDAY

April 4th

"Bring On The Stress!"

Okay, granted I would have been about 9000 times more stressed had I been back in Provo. However, this week didn't just consist of school work to be done. For example, this day, there was the normal classes for the English students. Meanwhile, I had to run around the city like a mad man and visit THREE different Museums.

First, I went to the Saatchi Gallery - which, by the way, is probably one of my favourite art galleries I visited, even for being Post-Modern art. Then, I went to the National Gallery for 201 and looked at my last installment of paintings. Then, I headed to The Imperial War Museum, which I spent the longest in. They had this really amazing and in-depth Holocaust exhibit that I spent TWO HOURS in! I was blown away. So beautiful. 

Then I came home and ate dinner. This night we were all supposed to go see "The Children's Hour" with Kiera Knightly. (gag me) But as I had a buttload of homework, TWO papers to write, and a final to study for, I basically started to have a huge anxiety attack. Where's Dylan when you need her?? There was NO WAY I could wrap my mind around going to see some stupid play with some famous person that I don't even like! So, I stayed home and got EVERYTHING done! Except for my two papers, that is. I felt good.

Day 91: TUESDAY

April 5th

"Green-Witch? NO! Greenwich!"

Greenwich - pronounced Gren-itch, home to the International Dateline aka the place that everybody sets their clocks to! The Prime Meridian! We took a train for an hour south of London and got to climb up a hill to see.... NOTHING! Apparently Dursteler forgot to let us know that it costs 8,50 pounds to straddle the Dateline. LAAAAME!!! That's the whole point of going. So we just took some pictures by a big clock right outside:

We are sew kewl!

Then we walked back down the mountain to the Maritime Museum for a bathroom!! The museum itself wasn't too exciting but the gift shop was awesome! They such cute stuff! But then it was time to head home for the day.

I also signed up for my fall semester classes this morning!! Can't wait because I'm living with pretty much the coolest people alive!! Dylan Nicole Vance, Aubree Lee Schuenman, and Carley Ostergaard!! Wooo!!

Day 92: WEDNESDAY

April 6th

"Last Classes"

We are definitely winding down here in London. Wednesday was our last Tuesday classes. They were on Wednesday because we went to Greenwich on Tuesday. So we had our last History 201 and History 323 class and it was pretty bittersweet. We left almost immediately after class to go to St. Paul's Cathedral and listen to Evensong, the evening mass. It was a beautiful production but we were all pretty tired so...

Afterwards, a few of us went to Jamie Oliver's restaurant called Jamie's Italian. It took us 45 minutes to find the place because we didn't actually know where it was and then there was an hour and fifteen minute wait on top of that. But we were devoted and waited it out! And it was well worth it. I got a burger that was bigger than my face! Then we all got three desserts to share amongst us. It was basically the perfect evening:)

Day 93: THURSDAY

April 7th

"Let The Torment Begin"

Also known as, the start of finals. This day I got up and did my Fine Arts final which was, needless to say, a piece of cake! We just had a little discussion and then turned in our answers at the end so that we'd all get graded fairly. Simple as pie. Then we went to religion where we had our "final" that wasn't a final at all. He handed us a sheet of paper and told us to write three detailed questions that we thought a religion professor would write about this course that could be answered in 1-2 paragraphs. Then three more questions of the same that could be answered in 1-2 sentences. Then we just had to pick one of the questions and answer it on the back. The catch? The whole thing was open note, open book, and open discussion with neighbours. Once again? EASY. That class was kind of a joke anyways.

After religion, me, Emily, Megan, Brittney, and Jamie went to Leicester Square to attend the premiere of "Red Riding Hood" and hopefully spot some famous people. Unfortunately, we went to the wrong theatre and after being told that there was no premiere at that theatre tonight, we just thought we got the dates mixed up and so we ended up going to see a movie instead; "Unknown" with Liam Neeson. Pretty fun night if you ask me.

Later we discovered that the there WAS the movie premiere that night, just at a different theatre about a block away. We were mad.

After the movie we went out to dinner at Zizzi's right by our house because we had heard that there was a possibility that Lamb Liver was for dinner that night. Plus, I had never been to Zizzi's before.

After dinner, I decided it was high time to finish up my 323 paper that I had been working on little by little the past few nights. It's a good thing too because little did I know....

Day 94: Friday

April 8th

"SURPRISE! (thegoodkind)"

Me and Brittani treated ourselves this morning by finishing off the Beatles tour of England by going to Abbey Road, London. I can't explain what an amazing event this was. However, still wasn't the highlight of my day...

Yes, I was Paul and went barefoot:)

After that we went back to Shepherd's Bush and visited the Largest Indoor Mall in all of Europe - Westfield's Mall. IT'S HUGE. We got pretzels, smoothies, and then did a fair bit of shopping. HOWEVER, I knew I had flowers from my dad waiting at home for me and I didn't want to spend anymore money anyways so I just decided to head home.

I never could have imagined what was really going to be waiting for me once I walked through the door. I walked in and they heard my voice and started yelling my name from the Parlour. I figured it was just because my flowers had arrived. Little did I know..

The man holding the flowers was NOT my professor as I initially thought, but really, my father. With my mum standing right beside him.

If only you could see the look on my face as it took me 3.6 seconds to fully grasp what was going on. And yes, I had NO idea. Unlike everybody else in the whole wide world.

They were starving so I took them to Nando's, my favourite place in the world, and then they headed back to their hotel to nap for 4 hours while I wrote my Hist 201 paper!! I pounded that thing out so fast, I still can't believe it! I just needed to get everything done so I could properly party with the 'rents. Then, since we WERE for sure having Lamb Liver for dinner, I told them we should go out instead. We went to St. Martin's In the Fields Church to see a string quartet times three and then walked to a little kebab place and ate. It was the perfect evening.

Day 95: SATURDAY

April 8th

"Reading Day 2?"

Consisted of almost ZERO reading.. except for my Agatha Christie novel. Instead, I spent the day with my parents!! I first went to the British Museum because I realized I still had one more homework to do. This was probably the one thing I cried at the most. I love that museum and basically know it backwards and forwards. I'll never forget all the wonderful times we shared together and how many times it made me smile. Walking away was like walking away from my child. I still can't believe I won't be going back for a long, long time. It hurts me to think about. But all good things must come to an end, right? And I'm determined that I WILL go back.

From there, I went to my parents' hotel and picked them up so that we could go to Portabello Road!! Another spot that I'll miss greatly. Right by my house, we were able to go there often. It was special for me to be able to take my parents to all these places that I call home. We got lunch first at this little cafe right on Portabello and then just shopped around for a while. We got sweet crepes and I bought some fruit. I showed my mom a Tesco and I also bought a "Notting Hill Gate" street sign. Because, duh, that's my home!

Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral because my dad wanted to climb to the top but it had already closed so we stayed and listened to a little bit of Evensong. Then we went over the Piccadilly Circus and ate at the ORIGINAL Hard Rock Cafe!

wearing my new Hard Rock Cafe jacket:)

Then we settled in for the night. Basically the greatest start to my time with them.