I GOT A TATTOO!

Henna. Semi-permanent, mom, don't freak out. It will come off. But I smell like an Indian. We spent the day in India. Not real India, Southall. I had food at a Sikh Temple for lunch and then more Indian food for dinner. We visited a hindu temple as well and it felt like a mixture of disneyland and a bad christmas light job. There are so many colors in that culture and I felt really out of place. I thought I would be fine with my dark hair, but people stared.

For our day trip on wednesday we went to Brighton, Rye and the location of the battle of hastings. In Brighton we visited the Royal Pavilion. (Kellen thinks he is royalty. Seriously.) He told me. This was the first day I saw the Atlantic from the other side of the pond. The sea-gulls are terrifying. One of them tried to land on Anna's head. There was also no sand. Only colorful rocks, which was cool but really really hard to walk in. I took two rocks from the beach and I have been referring to them as fire and ice. I think they're luckier than the life water at the bath house.

At the field where the battle of hastings occurred, there was a herd of sheep. Anna and I chased them around until they were successfully "herded" near the house on the other side of the field. There were ruins from a castle and monastery. Also, there was a set of hedges that looked exactly like the hedges from harry potter 4. We re-enacted some harry potter. I was the possessed Victor Krum. Oh and did I mention that i have a henna dark mark on my arm? Here are the sheep pre-herded...

I am starting to get sick. I'll have to stop at Boots the chemist to get some crazy british cold remedies.

TERRORISTS

So i've been a little bit unsettled since our group meeting this afternoon. London has increased the level of terror threat this week due to some high level meetings at the end of the week. Tony Blair will be in town and two men on the "no-fly" lists stopped at Heathrow two days ago. I'm sure everything will be fine... but I will definitely be staying inside on friday, the day of the important meetings. And will not enter the tube ever on that day. I might be a little bit paranoid. Better to be safe than sorry?

To the Bat-mobile!

First off, to clear up any potential confusion on the title of this post. I learned that I can make this really creepy voice that sounds exactly like batman. Now, I have become slightly addicted to using that voice, and It has almost become a second self to me. Arrin, and Arrin with the voice often conflict with each other when serious things are supposed to be said. The voice likes to come out in public areas. The voice likes to comment on pretty things. The voice hasn't come out in class yet, but who knows! The voice has a mind of its own.

A lot has happened in the past week, so I'm going to leave out some and be brief on other things. Sorry.

I went to Westminster Abbey, saw a lot of places where dead people are. It was cool how a king and a poet can be buried in the same building.

I FINALLY went to Platform 9 and 3/4. What an experience. Everyone who knows me knows that I would rather go to Hogwarts than anywhere else. This is the closest I have ever come. Unfortunately the wall didn't work for me this time. It wouldn't let me in because I was impersonating Voldemort. Dang it.

The morning started with breakfast in the servery and Kellen saying to me..."Can you STOP bothering me, I'm trying to eat my muffin!" I told him that he obviously hadn't met my dad, to which the MacFarlane familiy agreed.

That night I saw Les Miserables for the first time! I knew most of the songs before getting there and I have known the story behind the play forever. It was a crazy night. On the tube on the way to the show this creepy guy stood very very close to me face to face, he didn't move and kept alternating staring at my friends then at me. I couldn't move because it was crowded. It was especially awkward because as he was staring at me, my face was two inches from his and I couldn't do anything about it. The tickets were incredibly cheap and we got amazing seats. On the way home, I stepped in purple puke that looked like apple sauce in the tube station. NASTY.

(Anna's voyage to the show was more eventful than mine. She had a bloody old man fall on her. Literally.)

MUSEUMS MUSEUMS MUSEUMS.. I need to make a list. I go to about three a week. I love seeing all of the art, and they are mostly all free. Luh luh loveee LONDON. The picture below is at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Note Anna's hump.

Today (Tuesday) I went to the BEST museum in london. It isn't even a museum but its my favorite place so far. The Sir John Slone Museum is basically a house full of architectural nic-nacs. This building was one of the coolest buildings I have ever been in. Every ceiling was different and there were multi-level courtyards throughout the entire place. There was an incredible amount of detail in every small room, and even though the house was small I felt like I could explore forever. I will definitely be back there. Here's a taste of the SLONE...beautiful organized chaos.

Tomorrow I will be a DAYYYYY TRIPPER. (beatles) But not that type of day tripper. We're going to Battle Abbey, Rye and the Brighton Royal Pavilion.

Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury

I wanted to write a quick post about the first day trip. At 6:30am we all got on a coach bus to first head to stonehenge. This was my first experience in completely rural england, we're talking open fields, woods and sheep. Lots of sheep. It was interesting to see the landscape change from inner city to suburbs and it reminded me of home. When we got to stonehenge after an hour and a half, it was freezing outside. It was raining, we were wet, and we were supposed to stay outside looking at the rocks for an hour. It was a good thing to have seen, I mean, Aliens are my favorite, I just wish it had been warmer. Maybe on the next day trip we will see a crop circle!

After stonehenge we went to the Salisbury Cathedral, with the tallest spire in England. It was a cathedral, I don't think I need to elaborate too much. It was cold, there were dead people buried there, and we had an awesome old man as our guide.

We got on the bus once again, and traveled for 45 minutes to Bath. We saw the roman baths as well as some of the ball rooms from Jane Austen. At the Roman Baths, we drank this mineral water, which supposedly gives you health and a long life. I sipped it and gagged. It was the nastiest water I have ever tasted, and all I could think of was the amount of bacteria I just drank.

We got home fairly late, and once I got home I crashed on my bunk. My bus buddy for the day, Kellen, was blasting Keasha all bus ride long. And even though I had that distraction I still got 2 reading assignments done. Unfortunately I didn't get any sleep, so I've been wiped out for the past few days.

***More to come soon, I have been behind***

ANNA the RIPPER

Saturday I woke up on a foggy London morning to go for a leisurely jog through Hyde Park. On the way we found the best road. Stores in order of sight: Top Shop, American Apparel, Urban Outfitters. We decided to stop and stretch in the middle of Hyde Park, bad idea... I felt like I was going to puke for the rest of the run after that. I love the dogs here. Every dog matches its owner perfectly, just like 101 Dalmatians. Once again, almost stepped on a pigeon. This time, it hit me as I tried to dodge it. Later in the day it started raining heavily as I walked down Portabello Road to get Crepes with nutella and strawberries. Soggy nutella is almost better than regular nutella. The two downsides of the rain were: 1. We had to run back home fast, and 2. The rain soaked through my grey leggings so much that it looked like I had a SEVERE bathroom accident when I got home.

I had my first experience at Primark. I HATE that place. I've never been shopping on black friday for a reason, and this store is constantly like that. It was incredibly stressful, almost worse than the time I went to costco when I was on my pain medication. Very cheap clothes like forever 21, but you have to fight for anything you want. The sizes are weird, and the check out line took maybe a half an hour. We went to harrods and got some chocolate, then a sushi bar where the sushi rotates on a conveyer belt. I ate some weird "fresh fruit" still don't know what its really called, but on the outside it is brown and spiky, but the inside looks like an eyeball. Tastes like one too.

On Sunday I was assigned to go to church outside the city. It was surprisingly refreshing to see the sky and to be in an area where you're not afraid to get hit by a clinically insane taxi driver. The first thing an old lady said to me when I walked into the church building was, "BYU! COME GIVE ME THE CUDDLES!" I love old british people.

<--This is the White Lion Pub. The first building we saw when we got off of the Tube outside of london.

The Jack the Ripper tour wasn't as scary as we thought it would be. It was extremely graphic, but more grotesque than frightening. We went at night, and the tour guide led us into a bad part of town where there are a ton of drunks at night, but where Jack killed the famous prostitutes. There was a gang of boys who started throwing stuff at us from the top of a 5 story parking garage, but other than that I felt relatively safe in a group of about 35 people. I don't plan on going back to that side of town. During the entire tour we made jokes about ripping people up, and by the end of the night, Anna the ripper returned back home with all of us. It might be scary to have Anna the ripper living with us, she hasn't killed anyone quite yet. If someone takes away her jeggings(Jean Leggings--all the rage here) maybe she'll attack.

Today we went to the british museum, took a picture of myself looking awkward next to an egyptian statue. This is the same statue that I remember taking a picture next to when I was 9, I tried to look just as awkward, but i didn't have my socks and sandals to make it perfect. Jake graciously stepped in the picture to act as a sibling.

AND THE PLAN TO GO TO COPENHAGEN IN FEBRUARY IS COMPLETE.. Denmark, here I come!

Tower of London

It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to be unhappy here, even if I hit my head on the bunk bed when I wake up. I was talking with a few of my friends and all we can talk about is that our faces hurt from smiling and our abs hurt from laughing. There is never a dull moment, and there is always something going on. "When you are bored of london, you are bored of life." This saying is 100% true. I don't think that I have ever been so happy.

This morning after breakfast I gave a short presentation on the Tower of London. After the presentation we traveled on the tube to Monument station, then walked to the Tower. Karalyn and I walked there with Prof. Howe and Dr. Cooper, 2:2 the best teacher student ratio I have ever had. Once we got to the tower we went directly to the crown jewels. I can't believe the size of some of those diamonds. I found an allusion to a myth about Dionysus but I can't find any information about the punch bowl the myth was inscribed on. If anyone knows anything about the Grand Punch Bowl from 1829 let me know.

The rest of the tower was as I had remembered it from when I was little, but it was COLD. After our day trip, I felt like I was frozen until a few hours after I got home. We also went to a market across the River Themes. I saw a ton of NASTY meat and dead animals, so instead of eating that, I ate a veggie burger, yummmm. I'll go back to the market tomorrow for lunch.

SO MUCH TURKISH DELIGHT!

PUBBIN- like clubbin

I went to my first pub this morning! The CHAMPION. I split some fish and chips with Leslie, we had a group of 9 girls there, everyone could completely tell we were American. Due to the noise level. Also, this creepy security guard heard me speak then wanted to talk to me about America, but the only thing he wanted to know about was the size of the Big Macs. I haven't had a Big Mac in years, so I was useless with information for him. whoops! I guess I'm an American failure.

This week has been the first big school week, I read 60 pages yesterday for a political science class. I loved the material so I didn't mind. During a study break I was walking down the 46 stairs from my dorm room in the house and my socks slipped on the first step in the flight. Luckily, I landed on my feet every stair, so it made a ton of noise, but it didn't hurt at all. It was more funny than anything.

I went to Gelato Mio for the first time, it was delicious. Did I mention that I have a new addiction to hazelnut? I have nutella everyday, not that different from when I lived in utah, but it seems more extreme here. I went to Wicked on tuesday night, we were afraid that they wouldn't have any good student tickets so about four of us ran to the theater. We didn't have to run. We had 17th row seats in the orchestra. The tickets were 25 pounds, not to shabby for broadway.

I also went to Trafalgar square and the National Gallery. It was interesting being there again after ten years, I remembered everything. But unfortunately in the winter, they don't have thousands of pigeons. In the national gallery we looked at a few paintings by Van Gogh and Botticelli. It's cool going to a museum without a class or teacher because you're going by choice, and you can see what you want to see and take your time. This week we went to see Big Ben and the River Themes.

The lion was covered in snow, so it was really slippery and wet. Very hard to get up, even harder to get down. Especially when a bunch of locals were looking at us like we had 5 heads. GaGa RAH RAH RAHHH... words of inspiration from Lady GaGa. Mind the GaGa.

Leichester Square, Hyde Park, St. Pauls, Museum of London

( I apologize in advance for the horrible photos, I've been trying to blend in with the locals by discretely taking pictures and by minimizing awkward tourist moments. Regular awkward moments will not be avoided. On purpose.)

This is what I did this weekend...

Saturday night was freezing. It was snowing, we were all Jet-lagged and I think it would have been much easier for all of us to stay in and sleep. But due to inspiration from the many quotes on the undersides of our bunk-beds, we went out anyway. Two of our friends had just arrived to the London Center from a crazy airport fiasco, so we dragged them along on our adventure of navigating the tube for the first time, finding cheap food and getting inexpensive student broadway show tickets at Leicester Square.

We didn't want to get ripped off by tickets salesmen, we couldn't understand their directions and most of all, we didn't want to be in the cold... so we went back to the tube and came back to Notting Hill where we ate at an Italian restaurant.

Sunday was so interesting. We went to church at the Hyde park ward where the english have become a surprisingly small minority. During the second hour we were assigned Wards around london to serve. I was called to the London North ward, where a small tight knit group of affluent people who work in the city live. I will keep you posted on my calling inside that ward. If it's working with kids, wish me luck! We walked to and from church through Hyde park. I would have enjoyed it better if I had been wearing thicker tights. There were dogs running free everywhere with cute english families walking on the pathways surrounding the snow covered grass. I slept for 4 hours by accident when I got home from church. We had a few meetings, dinner, and I studied in the library for the first time. Unfortunately, the Library is one of the only rooms in the house with ugly art deco and weird furniture. However I think one of my new favorite spots is the window seat in the library, even though the room is weirder than most. I love the drawing room.

Monday:

This was our last day without classes. We woke up early, got on the tube and went to the Museum of London where we learned a lot about the history of London and England in general. After the Museum of London we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. I am very glad I took Latin throughout middle school and some of high school. What I remembered was very useful when we were supposed to find the meaning of a Latin inscription of the tomb of Christopher Wren. We saw Sherlock Holmes the movie in an awesome old theatre down the street. Did I mention that JUDE LAW IS MY NEIGHBOR. In the past, students have seen him, I hope I will.

Sorry- No pictures for this post, it's 3am and I can't sleep. The jet-lag is ridiculous.

My trip to the center was pretty uneventful, I took the flight from JFK to Heathrow, the Heathrow express train to London, then a cab to the center. I couldn't understand the cab driver, so I had him repeat himself 3 times when he was asking me if i needed help with my luggage. The people watching here is great though. We're talking platinum blonde lesbian haircut great. London girls wear weird things. I think my favorite was the poodle hat girl. I don't know if anyone can top her.

I took a 2:30am bathroom break with Kira because we're afraid of rats and can't go alone. According to the London Center faculty, rats come out at night and will get into absolutely anything--including locked luggage. Today, someone ran over a rat with their suitcase while coming into the building without realizing it. One of the professors children found the dead flattened rat and LOVED it. It's my goal to find ratatouille while I'm here... I'll have Dobby help.

I have to try to sleep, more info to come!!!!