flowers and sunshine

Last week we got to visit Kew Gardens!  Kew is one of the biggest botanical gardens in the WORLD! It was beautiful weather and the flowers were just starting to bloom on some of the trees/bushes/plants/etc.  Luckily, we survived an intense duck attack.  We also went to Regents park here in the city last week while the weather was BEAUTIFUL.(now it's back to being cold and cloudy and gray:(-even the weather is sad about finals week.)

(I looked out the window and what did I see? POPCORN POPPING ON THE APRICOT TREE!!!)

(Daffodils are EVERYWHERE!!  So fun and springy!)

(Taylor and me reading about Mrs. Dalloway in Regents park while in REGENTS PARK!!)

Last week I also went to see the play Mousetrap with EMMA!  It was way cool!  As you will read on the blue plaque(or the picture of the blue plaque) below, the play has been running for 60 YEARS this year!!  Crazy!  If you are in London, see it.  Tickets were cheap, but bring a jacket as they will try to freeze you out of the theatre.

I can't believe I come home in LESS THAN A WEEK!  So crazy!  Well, if I survive two more tests from H*** then I will be home in week.  Prayers sent my way will be greatly appreciated.

york and other places around good olde England

Our trip to the land of the North ended with a night in York and a stop at Fountains Abby.  York was a pretty cool medieval town where we got to actually walk along the old wall build hundreds of years ago.  Walking along the wall I had a very interesting experience though.  It was the first thing we did in the morning and it was cold and foggy.  I turned to my friend and commented on how sad it is that I would rather still be in my warm bed than walking around on a wall older than my country.  Looking back I can't say at what point I was desensitized to old things, but it is so interesting that only just a couple of months ago I couldn't wait to see medieval ruins, and now I wanted to be done as quickly as possible.

I did really enjoy York Minster Cathedral though!  It is HUGE!!

Outside... obviously.

The five sisters windows.  Each one is medieval stained glass and 16 meters high(don't ask me how many feet that is-I'm taking English and History classes here, not math.)

Fountains Abby was BEAUTIFUL!!!  Sadly, we only had ONE hour to explore this amazing place, but it was an hour well worth it!  The ruins of the abby were so magnificent and then the gardens were wonderful! 

As you can tell from the pictures, everything is starting to get green here!  Spring has come to England and it is like a new place in London!  People are starting to come out of their caves and play in the parks(or for some, make out in the parks;)) Flowers are starting to bloom(daffodils!)  It's perfect!

the land of bagpipes and rugby

edinburgh scotland.  Sadly, I did not enjoy my time here.  Unless you will be spending a disgusting amount of time in the UK, my advice would be to pass up edinburgh.  Below are the few highlights of the city:

Sir Walter Scott memorial

The birthplace of Harry Potter(The Elephant Cafe)-sounds a lot cooler than it actually is.  

The city.

The castle. 

I have to admit that the castle and the view from the castle over the city was beautiful, and even better was the view from the city up to the castle at sunset.

We were also given the very rare opportunity to visit New Lanark.  Think Industrial Revolution + Disneyland.  Exactly-a horrible mix.  Stay away.

the many lakes in England

Ambleside, England=happiness.  

The first day we got to go to the William wordsworth museum and work with first edition books and original manuscripts.  It was way more fun than I thought it would be, all 8 hours of it.  Still not going to be an English major though.

The second day we went hiking around the lake district!  Below are gems in a sea of beauty.

William Wordsworth's second, better(bigger) home just outside of ambleside.

The home of Beatrix Potter(peter rabbit, Miss Potter anyone?)

walking in their footsteps-church history in Preston

Last week was the group trip up North to Preston, the lake district, Edinburgh, and York.  The week was a rough one as we left a day and a half after returning from Denmark, and it was the longest of any of the trips we took this semester.

The Uncle of one of the girls in the group is the president of the Preston MTC, so he and his wife gave us a tour of Preston.

Wadham road: President Hinkley's apartment when he was serving his mission(where he received the famous letter from his father saying "forget yourself and go to work")

Preston Temple

Oh were the elders so excited when they saw a coach full of 35 beautiful girls drive up.

The River Ribble: where the first baptisms in England were performed.

The religion class this semester was the history of the church in Britain, so just like all of the other places we have visited, it was so neat to learn about something and then go see it in person.  This experience was even sweeter though because the places we visited were sacred and the spirit was present.  I am so thankful that we were given the opportunity to visit Preston and learn more about church history!

the land of my ancestors

A couple of weeks ago I took the opportunity to go to DENMARK with two amazing girls Emma and Caity.  EasyJet is good, EasyBus not so much(waiting 45 min for a bus=3 frustrated girls).  This is a picture of us as we left 58 degree London for 40 degree Copenhagen!

   King Frederick VI of Denmark was my great great great great great great grandfather.  His daughter(my great grandmother) joined the church and was essentially disowned, but it still made the trip extra exciting and amazing to know I was walking where my ancestors walked!

Grandpa Freddy and Me!!

(I apologize for the blurriness!  Luckily, no family resemblance.)

Gardens at the Palace=amazing.  Huge lake, some wilderness type gardening and some very planned and formal.

Grandpa Freddy's Palace-Fredricksburg castle

danish in Denmark of course!  All the food exceeded expectations.

Nyhavn(newhown) was enchanting!  The buildings were all beautiful and different colors.  The city was still cold and wintery, but the colorful buildings added fun and made it exciting to walk around/ride the bus!

The little mermaid.  She watches longingly as ships leave the harbor.

Copenhagen is the most expensive city in the world right now.  5 Danish kroner=1 American dollar.  It ended up being really hard for us to convert in our heads after being used to converting pounds and dollars.

Dinner one of the nights.  Super good.  See receipt.

(if you look underneath the amount in Kroners, you will see the amount in euros, but still very hard to see the 365!)

changing of the guard in Copenhagen>changing of the guard in England

reasons 1. less people 2. happier people 3. changing of the guards in England is lame and Denmark's is not.

Nature shot next to the ocean.

The first night we were in Copenhagen, we decided to go see the temple.  It was fairy close to our hotel.  Taking the bus turned out to be a little scarier than we thought it would as we walked by a scary old cemetery, but luckily we were able to rise above it(thanks to singing primary songs).  It was such a neat experience to see this beautiful building! 

Another favorite experience was visiting The Church of our Lady.  Inside is the first Christus as well as statues of Christ's twelve apostles.  Below I have a picture of Peter holding keys.  Elder Packer explains the importance of the keys to the church in two different conference talks(1995 and 2008).  While in the church, we ran into fellow members of the Church, a couple of men who are employees of the church, it was really neat to not only have just read the conference talk mentioning these amazing works of art, but then to meet others with the same views as ourselves(as opposed to the homeless guy in the corner).

Marble Church.  The inside is not marble, but wood painted to look like marble.  We hiked to the top through dark stairways and through rusty doors and we almost gave our lives to make it, but the view was gorgeous and totally worth it!

If you have wondered why I came to Europe during the winter, this is why:

No lines at the airports!