one month mark.

this week has gone by fast and it is officially february!!!

monday we went to les miserables. i had seen it before when i was in new york, and sadly to say i had no idea what was going on the whole time. but this time, i actually got the story and i ended up liking it so much more! it was really fun!

on tuesday we had class, then went to kensington palace for high tea. they served us little sandwiches, a scone with jam & cream, little pastries, and of course herbal tea. it was so much fun and such a cool experience!

wednesday we went on a 9 mile hike through the countryside. we were walking up slippery hills and muddy grass fields. during the hike/walk, we saw 2 old castles. it was so beautiful, even though it was a cold & long day!

some of my friends and i are going to paris for the weekend! we catch the chunnel at 5:25 am... haha so we are leaving our house to take a bus at 3:30. we'll see if we get there. haha but i'm so excited! love and miss you all!

two decades.

this week has gone by really fast. we were really busy and we are all getting more used to living here. a few highlights from the week were:

1. dover & canterbury. on wednesday we drove to dover to see the white cliffs and to see the castle there. of course the day we go the castle is closed, so we only saw the cliffs and then left! but they were still really pretty and it was fun to see! then we went to canterbury and saw the cathedral there and then went shopping and i found my new favorite store. paperchase. in love.

[rock beach]

[canterbury cathedral]

[kins just representing east high in the uk]

2. "oh my gosh, oh my gosh you guys!!!" (song that's stuck in our head from legally blonde that we have been singing all week) me, carly, liz, and paige went and saw legally blonde on thursday night. we didn't go there till right before it started to get tickets because we wanted to get the cheap price-- we ended up getting tickets that weren't that expensive, but we were pretty much at the very top, haha but it was still SO fun!

3. on friday we went to the american military cemetery and memorial and then to cambridge. cambridge was the funnest town and i loved it! steph-- i kept wishing the whole time that you could be there to show me where you lived and show me around! but it was such a fun day. we got lunch at a yummy cafe, went to one of their colleges there, and we went punting! it was freezing and we ended up getting the punter who all the guides were complaining about being so slow. haha he was so slow- getting passed left and right by other punters & boats, and he would just randomly stop and just talk to us about his life haha. it was so funny and i'm way glad that we did it!

[cambridge]

[punting]

4. saturday we went to get a tour of the houses of parliament. the tour was long, but really interesting! they showed us where all the meetings happen, and how once a year the queen comes and where she sits and goes. it was cool!

5. i'm 20 today! since my bday was sunday, me and some friends went out saturday night to celebrate. kins, liz, carly, paige, ashley, elise, and kaylee were nice enough to take me shopping and then to dinner at gourmet burger kitchen. it was way good and lots of fun! after we got gelato and i got the hazelnut kind, which basically tasted like a bueno bar in ice cream form. so so yummy! this morning i woke up to an email from my mom saying that she booked her flight to come visit me the first week of march! i can't wait!!! even though i knew she was coming, it made it that much better to get the final update that she booked her flight on my birthday! overall, i had a great birthday!!

xoxo

up north.

this weekend we traveled up north. thursday morning we took the coach towards york. we stopped at the fountains abbey. fountains abbey is where monks and nuns lived back in like the 12th century. it was really really cool! it's weird to go somewhere and try to picture it how it used to be- i can't picture monks walking around there and stuff! but it was fun and actually really pretty. funny story- as we're walking down the hill to get to the abbey, it is really muddy and wet grass, and typical i fall and slide down the hill. not once, but twice. hahaha. me and kinsey couldn't stop laughing because it was so funny and of course it would happen to me. luckily later when i saw liz, and she saw how my pants and coat had mud all over them-- i found out that sort of the same thing happened to her and she was dirty too haha.

[i'm the tiny head in the veryyyyyyy back]

[just the cutest girl around]

[muddy]

after seeing the abbey, we drove to york and checked into our hotel. we stayed at the ibis-- and we were all in love. haha, it wasn't even that nice- but just the fact that we were only sharing a room with one other person, and we had a private shower with warm water and good water pressure-- we were so happy! they did our roommate assignments by our bunk mates- so i was with liz! love her too much. that first night, after getting settled into the hotel, we went out to find some dinner and to see york. it was only 5:30, but everything was closed and after searching we finally found a good place to eat! after getting dinner we went back to the ibis, and played cards. when it was time to go to bed- i was worried that i wouldn't sleep good since we were in a new place and because i had already slept a few hours on the bus ride, so i took an ambien. to keep the story short and not too embarrassing-- let's just say that me and liz had an hour conversation that i could not remember to save my life the next morning. thanks to liz for being able to put up with me.

on friday morning we ate breakfast and packed up our stuff. we walked to the york minster and got a tour. it was really cool- but all of the cathedrals are starting to look the same to me haha. hard to keep tract/keep interested in them. but it was still fun! after the tour, we walked around the town for a bit- and we went to shambles street. it's the oldest shopping street in all of europe!

[me & carly on shambles street]

we got back on the bus after shopping a bit and drove to preston. we got a lds church tour and saw a lot of the sights. we saw the preaching square, where president hinkley served, the river where they had their baptisms, and a park that was dedicated to the converts and the first missionaries in england. it was so pretty there and really interesting- even though none of us had ever been so cold before! we drove to the preston temple, where they also have an mtc, stake center, and a distribution center. it was all pretty small-- their mtc usually only has about 25 boys at a time in it. after the tour we drove to liverpool. we were all still freezing, so once we got to the hotel, we didn't want to leave. we ate at the restaurant at the ibis and then played cards and hungout till late.

[me & megan at the baptism river]

[preston, england temple]

saturday we woke up, ate breakfast, checked out of our hotel once again- then we walked to the liverpool beatles museum. the museum was actually really fun and interesting! they had a lot of fun things from the beatles in there. after the museum we had some time to kill before getting back on the bus to go home- so we went shopping for a bit and ate lunch at barburrito. it was basically a barbacoa-- and we all LOVED it. we have all been missing mexican food like crazy, so we were all happy to find it! after our yummy lunch, we had a 5 1/2 hour bus ride back to london. it was weird to be coming home from a vacation-- but only coming back "home" to the centre.. but we were happy to get off the bus and everything! overall, it was a fun weekend up north and even though we had a few falls and had perma chills the whole time- it was really fun!

today we went to church-- and it was my first day in young women. there were only 5 girls- and like 4 advisors (then with me there will be 5) haha so it's a lot different than how it was at home, but hopefully it will be good! i have to teach in 2 weeks-- on "preparing to become an eternal companion." haha i don't know how i will teach girls about this when i don't know as much about it as all the married leaders! but we'll see how it goes!