a week of shows

So it's a billion degrees here. And humid.  And here's the thing, I'm from Sacramento, I KNOW HEAT. But here's the deal... I know heat with AC and a pool in my backyard.  I do not know how to handle it when I'm walking around all day, to come home to a flat that has no AC.  The struggle I tell you! But in other news KATE IS IN LABOR. My roommate Kelsey had an "inkling"this morning to look at her CNN app and I kid you not...she looked within 30 seconds of them posting the news!

Ok so I haven't blogged about anything lately so here we goooo.

Monday: Rihanna (look at the last post)
Tuesday: After our return from Manchester, I did homework (boo) and grocery shopped (yay) for a bit then headed over across the Thames for a play at Globe Theatre! On our walk down, we seriously live so close to everything, we stopped by St. Pauls.  It is seriously beautiful

Globe theatre was amazing! Very authentic.  We sat on these hard little benches but I packed a pillow hehe. We had studied Macbeth in class, so seeing it performed live really helped me understand it more.  I may have fell asleep for a few minutes, but it's ok... Also we all agreed that Macbeth was a total babe! A mix of Josh Duhamel and Hugh Jackman. 

Wednesday: After class we went out in search of a famous place called Hummingbird Bakery and ended up at some place called Hummingbird Cafe on the outskirts of town, but it was so bomb! A good little find for real. After we rushed home and changed to go to dinner at the London Centre.  BYU study abroad students usually stay in the Centre, but it's being worked on. Ok BUT it was beautiful.  I was a twinge sad that I wasn't living there, because it's so beautiful and so close to Kensington, but then I was like waitttt we live all by ourselves and can do whatever we want.  After dinner we went to WICKED.  It was amazing. I really like Fiyero, he did amazing.  And Defying Gravity is my favorite song. 

Thursday: We went to Greenwich! And saw the prime meridian. Two hemispheres at once say WHAT.  Then we walked around town and went to the painted gallery where Le Mis, The Kings Speech and Pirates have all been filmed.  After that we shopped for Paris (eeeeee) because it's a billion degrees and we all packed jeans. That night our professors bought us tickets to a candle lit violin concert in a church.  It was cool...but long.  Good thing we rewarded ourselves with GBK and Amorinos.  GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) is hands down my favorite burger EVER.

cheesin it. also we saw two groups of asian tourist groups get in a fight here hahaha

FRIDAY: that will be it's own post because it was Harry Potter World day. 

I LOVE LONDON. I LOVE MY LIFE. 

yellow diamonds in the light

Monday July 15th was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time.  It always seemed so far away though! It was a day that I would brag about to everyone...because um I had to right? IT WAS THE DAY OF THE RIHANNA CONCERT.  And letttt me tell you.  Rihanna lived up to every high expectation and hope I had. It also helped that we were literally like 10 feet from her.  So here's how it went. Also when I say "we" I'm referring to LBFF Lindsay and I.

Here's our flawless day (but really, things just kept working out for us).

Monday
12:30- get out of a horrendously long class and get lunch at Costa and go home to pack!

2:00- Go to Euston train station and hope onto our train.  We were booked with separate seats but I magically had a seat open next to me.  We napped and listened to Rihanna (obviously)

4:50-Got to Manchester! And we were a bit rushed because we had floor seats and wanted to get there ASAP to get in the front.  So we caught a cab, which was conveniently located just outside the doors.

5:15- Get to the Stay Inn Hotel.  Had to sneakily get Lindsey in because I booked it as a single room becauseeee we are cheap and didn't want to pay extra.  And there was free wifi there so of course we were excited. And we got all ready in our best Rihanna looks and headed out to the Manchester Event Center.  As we were walking we didn't really see any crowds. You know how when you go to concerts and parking is crazy and there's people walking from all corners of who knows where to the arena? There was nothing like that.  So we were thinking either we got completely messed up and the concert wasn't even happening or people here don't really get to concerts early.  Luckily it was the later.

5:40-Get to the event center and munch on some McDonalds (which was necessary since we were going to be standing for the next 5 hours) and line up.  We made friends! With two random guys...I was slightly shocked at the amount of men at this concert...specifically this little number:

more on him later

6:00- Doors opened! But kind of.  We could get into the arena, but not on the floor.  We had to wait in other lines throughout the arena that let onto the floor.  So we run around trying to find the shortest line and they decided to form a line somewhere righttt when we got there so we were towards the front. Then those doors opened and we rushed down stairs and onto the floor (I was in wedges mind you so this was a difficult task).  We were about 4 "rows" back.  They weren't rows really because it was just a bunch of people.  And heaven bless the Manchester Arena people for making everyone sit down.  It was a nice little break and Lindsey got to hear "the saga" of my life.  Well that's what I entitled it. 

7:30- Some DUMB DJ's called GTA? Maybe? See I don't even remember...Anyways they opened for her. Like what the heck? I was told David Guetta was opening.  But remember when I said everything worked out for us? Their switchboard lost power! HAH! I was happy.  Bad? Probably.  But I wanted Rihanna! Not some drunk DJs (really they consumed so much alcohol in the short time they were up there).

9:00-BAD GAL RIRI! You guysss! ok ok ok. So the lights went down. The opening chords of "Mother Mary" come on.  The curtain drops and Rihanna is RIGHT THERE! 10 feet away from us! I screamed at the top of my lungs. I cried.  I was so happy. She is stunning.  STUNNING.

this is slightly zoomed in, but see! so close!

She opened with Mother Mary and did fabulous.  I would tell you the whole set but no once really cares.  She had 6 different outfits too.  I don't even know what my favorite performance was because they were all amaze.  I loved loved "What Now" because it's a slow jam and so good. BUT "We Found Love" is seriously my favorite party jam ever so obviously I went insane.  Like looking back now, I can't believe I was RIGHT THERE and Rihanna was RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.  What? Unfreakingreal. She closed with "Where Have You Been" but came back for the encore and sung "Stay" and "Diamonds." She is amazing live. 

the red dress was my favorite outfit by far

Overall it was probably the best night of my life. Really.  It was SO FUN.  Just partying with Rihanna...no big deal.  After we were walking to our hotel and saw a billboard for gatorade and started craving it real bad so we went to a store and bought some.  I chugged mine in less than 30 seconds.  Oops. We sat in our hotel that night and ate an entire roll of Digestives(sounds sick right? But they are actually amazing cookies) and watched all of our videos and looked at our pictures and attempted tweeting at Rihanna so she'd have breakfast with us.  It didn't work out...

a long post for a long trip

The day after my birthday we headed out for a long trip to the South west.  My expectations weren't very high (is that bad) and I really thought it would be all museums, ancient Shakespeare stuff, etc.  But no.  It was UNREAL.  Such a good 5 days. We went to beaches, castles and had yummy food (always a highlight) and lots of bonding time (another highlight). We hopped onto the coach bright and early and headed over to Dover! Here's a fun fact about the coach, we fall asleep within about 5 minutes of being on it.  It's a magical napping place. Also our driver, Jimmy, was the best.

Ok Day 1 was Dover.  It was a beautiful castle set on top of a hill over looking the ocean.  Ever heard or the white cliffs of Dover? Yes those were surrounding us.  It was super windy and our hair was getting all cray, but it was enjoyable none the less.  We were able to climb to the top of the tower and see all around.  There were some medieval tunnels as well.

After Dover we went to Hastings to see where the Battle of Hastings took place.  We just learned so much about this battle, so it was cool to see where it actually happened.  This battle took place in 1066 and was between William the Conqueror and King Henry.  William defeated Henry and England went under Norman rule.  Thousands of men died there, and there was even a monument erected by William marking the exact spot where Henry died. Catch phrase of the day: "Should I drop some blood or...." We ate dinner at a darling place in Hastings and then headed off to hotels.  So we were told that there were three hotels.  We had to face the fact that we would be split up (which was tough because we have literally been together 24/7) and everyone got off at the first hotel except Eden, Abby and I.   After fenagaling a bit, we got the three of us at the same hotel which was a sketchy little place called the Wool Pack.  We went on a long walk to the sea and met a local who told us all about the weather (what is up with Brits and talking about weather).  At like 10 we decided we really needed ice cream, so we headed out into to sketchy town to find some.  We wandered around for awhile, trying to find it, but once we did it was worth it.  We ate pints of ice cream and watched Sound of Music.

Day 2: Fishbourne Palace.  This is where old Roman burial ground were.  Oh and it was about a quarter mile from our hotel so we were most likely sleeping on top ancient Roman graves...which explains why Eden's TV randomly turned on at 3 AM. Anywho after words we were headed off to the ferry to the Isle of Wight.  HOLY ISLE OF WIGHT. Beautiful.  I'm honeymooning/visiting/retiring there. The ferry ride was beautiful and I conveniently wore anchors, sperrys and seer sucker! Didn't even plan that. Once on the island we went to Osborne House which was Queen Victoria's summer home and favorite residence.  She died there.  If you read my earlier post, you know how obsessed I am with Victoria so I was loving life.  Unfortunately, we couldn't bring cameras or bags into the house so there are no pictures of the interior, but it was amazing.  The stair wells and colors and paintings and everything were just so amazing.  Victoria had good taste that's for sure.

After the Osborne House we hiked to Tennyson Down and read some poetry by Tennyson.  The hike was beautiful and over looked the ocean and white cliffs. Probably one of the prettiest places I have every been.  That night we stayed in the most darling cottages.  Abby, Zoe, Kelsey, Lindsay, Eden and I were all together so it was a party obviously.  We stayed up way too late talking and I have no recollection of how I made it from the couch to my bed.

Day 3: This was another poetry day.  We took the ferry back to the mainland and visited Hardy's cottage.  We sat in the woods behind his house and recited poetry.  It was so amazing actually being there where he lived and reading his works.  There was a whole group of old people there as well and we loved chatting with them.

The next stop was Lyme Regis.  If you've read Persuasion by Jane Austen, then this is where Louisa fell off the Cobb and hurt her head.  Well it was amazing because we were able to go in the water! Ah! I love the ocean and water, it was so refreshing.  We ate our lunch on the beach and played in the sand. Funny story... Kelsey was eating fish and chips when a seagull swooped down and took the fish right out of her hand.  She was bleeding.  It was hilarious haha. We went to our hotel in Exeter that night and it was so nice, we were pleasantly surprised.  There was also a movie theatre across the street so we saw Despicable Me 2 and enjoyed some giant Diet Cokes.

Day 4: First we went to Tintagel.  This has to be where Disney got the inspiration for The Little Mermaid.  There was a fantastic cove, and remnants of a castle right above it. The water a crystal clear blue.  Some people from our group got in the water (and tried to pick up jellyfish..?) but I don't like wet clothes so no. We hiked all around the remnants of the castle (apparently the location of Camelot and King Arthur) and there were just the most amazing views. Pictures don't even do it justice.  We hiked back, which was a little treacherous but we were rewarded by some Cornish Pastys.  These are famous to Tintagel and were sooo good.

After Tintagel, we headed over to Saint Michaels Mount.  It is a little island off of Cornwell and you have to walk on a strip of rocks to get there.  The palace in ancient and beautiful.  The views of the ocean are amazing.  We had a cute/crazy tour guide named Jane.  Jane just knew all the facts about the castle.  Like how there used to a giant resident on the island and his heart is buried deep inside..... Cornwell is famous for Cream Tea, which is basically scones and clotted cream and jam and tea.  So of course we had to get it.

That night we headed back to the hotel and walked around the town a bit.  There were some amazing stores, but they all closed at 6! Boo! We ate a pub and got some delicious food. Then we proceeded to stay up until 1 talking and pinteresting away. Mornings are always rough...

Day 5: Today we went to Winchester Cathedral which is where Jane Austen is buried.  We had a long tour in there and learned all about the architecture and history.  There were two ancient royal weddings at that Cathedral.  Also, there were layers of history.  It was originally made by William the Conqueror, and instead of tearing it down, generations continued to add layers to the building.  We walked around the town and looked at different statues then headed over to Chawton which is where Jane Austen lived and wrote most of ner novels.  We were able to go into her house and write with a quil and look at different rooms.  I've only read Persuasion and I've sorta seen some movies (by "sorta" I mean I fell asleep in all of them) so I probably wasn't as excited as most people would be, but it was still interesting!

And now we are back, with no AC, no water, nothing.  And it's in the high 80s.  And humid.  So we might be reallll gross for church tomorrow. The end.

a royal birthday

July 8th was my birthday! And it was the greatest birthday.  I mean... I was in London.  How could it not be?

The stay started up with me waking up BEFORE my alarm clock (see my body knows it's 20) and walking out to my living room with a table full of flowers, candy and a card! And my cute roomies making me french toast! So obviously that made it the best.

Peanut butter kit kats are the greatest thing on this planet...and notice a peanut butter theme? They know me so well.

The next portion of my day consisted of 4 hours of class.  Being a July baby, I've NEVER had to go to school on my birthday, so this was an adjustment.  And I had an essay due, and a presentation! Booo.  But all is well and it flew by and I got me some Diet Coke.

After class, my friends led me to my day.  I wasn't allowed to know any plans.  We got off at the Covent Garden tube stop and went to Shake Shack! It had only opened a few days early, so the line was long but well worth it.  Everyone who worked there was so nice, and everyone working sung Happy Birthday to me! Then while we were eating, a man in a suit came up to our table and asked whose birthday it was, then gave me a free shirt! Also there was a free photo booth so we took a ton of pics of course

Yummy shake shack!

After we wandered around Covent Garden, which was perfect because it is my favorite place to wander around.  I've been there way too many times for the amount of time I've been in London.  We tried on diamond rings in a jewelry store, tested make up at Chanel and looked at the out door markets. We waited outside of the Apple store so I could check for missionary emails! I got lots of love, pictures and hilarious voice recordings from my friends. Made my day. Then we went to go pick up my birthday present to myself... a satchel from the Cambridge Satchel Company complete with a monogram. 

After we shopped some more in Covent Gardens (seriously, how well do my friends know me?) and went into Kate Spade, Ted Baker, Michael Kors and Cath Kidston.  We just window shopped because those stores a bitttt expensive.  Except at Cath Kidston.  It's exclusively in the UK and it's the cutest store ever.  After shopping excursions, I headed back to my flat and skyped friends and family.  Then we got all dolled up and out for our next adventure.  

They took me to Chipotle, which is my favorite food IN THE WORLD.  Then we hopped on a tube off to our next adventure.  Well the tube was EMPTY and we were having a party on the way to the next stop.  We were having so much fun that we accidentally got on the wrong tube.  But all was well because we got to out final stop... a Karaoke club.  We jammed out to Britney and stood out like sore thumbs because everyone there was super indie and we're super not. Getting back was an adventure because all the tubes were closed.  We decided to hail a cab, and we thought it'd be super expensive because we literally thought we were miles upon miles away from London. But the cab ride was like 10 minutes so apparently we live close to some sketchy clubs!

After we came back and had some cake and I skyped my parents.  It was seriously the best day ever and I was so blessed to spend it with amazing people and in the most amazing place in the world.

the best day

So I am writing this a WEEK after this actually happened.  And as my parents can attest to from just talking to me, my brain is mush.  But I'll try to remember the best I can.  So July 5 was the BEST day ever.  Ok so I'm a bit of an exaggerator and will probably refer to many days on this study abroad as "the best day ever" but this one was up there. 

I'm moving here

Woke up got fancy and went to Kensington Palace!! Holy Kensington! It is by far my favorite thing I've done since I've been here.  It was pretty much all about Queen Victoria's and Albert's love story because they resided at the palace. They had nine children.  So we were walking down one of the halls and asked a tour guide and he literally told us everything about Victoria.  Know how earlier I said Elizabeth I was my favorite royal? JK! It's Victoria. Hands down.  Here are some fun facts (I'm sure everyone will just read ALL of them)

:Victoria favored her "pretty" children.  She made one of her not so pretty daughters her personal secretary and forbade her to get married for years.  She let her "pretty" daughter become an artist, even though it wasn't socially acceptable for woman to do that.  Her daughter sculpted the statue of Victoria that is in front of the palace:

:She was absolutely in love with Albert (I'm in love with their love) and could hardly function when he died.  That's when Mr. Brown, her horseman came in.  He gave her a will to live again.  People speculated that they were together, hence the movie title "Mrs. Brown.":

:Both Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, are great great grandchildren of Victoria:

:Victoria's granddaughter, Alexander, married Tsar Nicholas of Russia.  That means Victoria was the great grandma to Anastasia:

:Victoria had hemophilia and passed it down through her family. Her great grandson, Alexi, had hemophilia and that is the reason the royal family of Russia brought in Rasputin:

:Victoria blamed her eldest son, Edward, for the death of Albert.  Edward was a way at military camp and had an affair with a prostitute.  Albert rode out to camp on a very cold night, and when we returned to Kensington, he got into bed, never got out and died 18 days later:

:She married all of her children off to different royals, so basically every royal family in Europe are descendants of Victoria (hence why the Queen and her husband are related):

:And so many more, but I won't bore you...:

Our next stop in the palace was the Royal Fashion exhibit.  It was amazing.  My eyes welled up with tears haha! There were dresses from the Queen and Princess Margaret and Princess Diana! They were enchanting and it was so cool to see the styles change over the years. 

my favorite quote from the exhibit

my favorite dress

just a weeee bit obsessed

greetings from my home

I wanted to buy these.... but they weren't for sale

pretty friends in pretty places

After the palace we napped on the grass outside of it (not very royal but whatever) and then headed to the Thames for an afternoon tea boat ride! So we show up to the pier (in a huff and puff because we thought we were going to be late) and the boats not even there.  We were just waiting on the pier, looking out for other people in our group, when I hear a very quiet announcement saying "this is not a drill, evacuate immediately." What? Then it came on realllly loud and everyone began evacuating.  Apparently there was a gun threat or something.  I was a little bit scared because we were right next to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, which are both so famous and could be targets for bombers, but everything ended fine and we were able to get back on and have some lovely sammies, macaroons and diet coke.  The views from the cruise were amazing.

After we went to Ben's Cookies (because obviously the riverboat food wasn't enough...) and then went to go see Once.  If you are in London...GO SEE ONCE.  It was amazing.  All the orchestra members were parts of the play and were on stage.  We were front row too! It was unreal.  You may have heard of the song "Falling Slowly."  Well it's from that play, and the play is also a movie.  But we loved it and still haven't stopped talking about it.

Saturday we went to Stratford on Avon butttt I don't have any pictures/stories to tell.  Oops.

4th in the Motherland

Celebrating America's freedom from England while in England was a bit awkward.  Usually we are just obnoxious Americans, but we were EXTRA obnoxious that day...#sorrynotsorry

The day started out with a run.  A run! You always hear me talk about my food and stuff, but yes world, I exercise too (and by that I mean I've worked out twice this whole time). Anyways! After we did the most American thing we could think of... donuts (there goes that run).  OH but these donuts were.to.die.for. I got a toffe filled and a double chocolate.  Mmm mmm MMM.

Abs and I 

the gang a lang and our patriotic outfits

After we headed to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  We had two walks there (which I just found out were optional boooo) but they were fun! And pretty.  We went to the top of some monumental arch there that was built for the Queen Mum! We also got to see the outside of Kensington Palace (post on the inside coming later).  We also decided to take a pit stop by the BYU London Centre... just ask me how sad I am that we aren't living there.  Literally 5 minutes from Kensington Palace (my favorite place).  But we are all independent in our own flats, so it's all alright. Oh and it's in a super fancy area, we saw three Porsche's while we were there...and we were only there for 5 minutes.  We also sat in some beach chairs along the lake at Hyde Park until someone came and kicked us out because supposedly we had to pay for them...? Oops.  We obnoxiously sung God Bless the U.S.A

My BFF

Hyde Park with my flat mates

After the walk, we headed over to the grand opening of FIVE GUYS! There was a long line, but my group got there right when everyone else got to the front, so we luckily didn't have to wait.  A good ole fashioned burger was exactly what we needed.  And what a way to celebrate America right? Plus they actually had a soda fountain so I could happily control my ice to diet coke to lemonade ratio. Because that's what freedom is about.

Five Guys

After we walked around Covent Gardens a bunch, which is another one of my favorites. We got a lot of funky looks and a few "USA" chants so that was nice.  A side note.... after all that diet coke, we had to use the restroom real bad.  And as I've said, London has NO public bathrooms.  We were literally on the verge of tears.  But we found some in the opera house! Heaven bless the opera!  Some of the group ventured back to the apartment, but a few of us stayed back.  We stumbled among a bunch of college kids doing a pub crawl.  Everyone was a littttle bit tipsy so we decided to have a little fun with it.  We literally led the whole group with some guy names Xerras who had a flag has a cape.  After some random acts of kissing between people may or may not have taken place, we ditched everyone at the next pub cause we aren't into that and decided to walk home.  It was a long walk, but so much fun.  That night we watched Pitch Perfect.  So it was a super American day. 

we found an AFRICA centre.  You know I love me some Africa..

xox