And So It Goes

I can't believe that it is finally over! I know that I'm writing this rather late, but it still feels so fresh in my mind. Maybe I'm still in denial that it's over . . .

Well, anyways, it was an action-packed few days to the finish. Saturday was our food final, which was very Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoff. Six of us made gnocchi and wrote a paper about it, and you know what, we thought it went pretty well. Imagine our suprise on Monday night, when we got the grade back with a C+ on the paper! Since I played a big part in writing the paper, I was really upset, but one round of retail therapy with Genna and Kalais later, I felt a little stronger. We had a huge rant session with our group, which was not the most mature thing, but boy it sure helped! When we realized that it was a misunderstanding between what he expected and what he wrote, Heather and I got nominated to talk to him. After rehearsing my speech all morning, we presented and he agreed to change the grade to an A-! I felt so powerful! Yeah!

Not only was Saturday full of frustrating finals, but a lot of other running. We ran to Portobello Road to get last-minute Christmas presents. I was there on my first Saturday and my last Saturday. I hate closure, because it means that things are closed. Stupid full circle. I also got to see Chronicles of Narnia (AWESOME!!!), eat at Wagamama's, and go to Rutter's Christmas Celebration, which was a dream come true for someone who has sung in way too many Christmas concerts over the years. Sunday was our last week in the Mitcham ward, and I am really going to miss that ward. The people were so loving, caring, and accepting. They all seemed sad to see us go, even though they get new BYU students every semester. They taught me so much about acceptance and I hope to take that with me. We had our last African feast with Amma, the coolest young adult in all of London and all of her friends, too.

Monday, it was back to finals and fitting everything in last minute. Kalais and I went back to Kensington, where we'd been walking on our days off from Pilates to finally get the pictures we were too sleepy to get at 6:30 in the morning. Since they'd given us extra money, Genna and I went last-minute accessory shopping on Bond Street. Then, it was back to the center for our last chance at Yorkshire Pudding ( I will not so much be missing those oil-soaked bread baskets) and the long-awaited sleepover. It was great to have all of the girls together, and we kept wondering why we hadn't done it sooner!

Well, last day in London! I realized that I had never seen the changing of the guard, which is pretty much a big parade, but it's one of those things that you have to do in London. I took a brilliant spill up the escalator, but that's just another thing that's very "me". We also needed that last "London Tourist" shot at Platform 9 3/4, because what is London without Harry Potter pictures? And then, it was time to pack for hours and hours and make sure I didn't lose anything. Luckily, my luggage was light, and I wasn't sad to lose those painful food textbooks, but it was painful to see all the reminders of my trip get shoved into a suitcase.

The next morning started bright and early, as we took the tube back to Heathrow. I think that on the tube was the first time I really started to cry, because I realized that it really was all over. Luckily for me, I was on the "party flight", with about 15 of us on the same flight, and I was within talking distance of eight or nine different people in the long long lines at the airport and three on the plane itself. It was a good chance to say goodbye but still be having fun. We all went our separate ways in Chicago, with me and Abbi heading to San Francisco. The plane was grounded for 20 minutes, which isn't really that bad, but it was enough to drive me half insane. Luckily for me, the in-flight movie (Cinderella Man) was really good and kept my mind off of everything. My parents and James picked me up from the airport, and now I'm back home!

In conclusion, I must say that I really loved London. It gave me the opportunity to be away from almost everything familiar and comfortable and forced me to grow. I found wonderful and amazing new friends, I challenged myself academically, and I grew to love and appreciate London for all of its beauty and history. I found out that I want more education, I want to travel, and that I need to keep in touch with people better!

When it Rains, It Pours.

See, if you wait around long enough, I don't just post once, I post twice.

After that homework-filled post, I figured you might want to know what fun stuff I've been doing. So, here we go.

1) Going to the "Frost Fair". We were told that it was a big Shakespearean recreation festival, but the only thing Shakespearean about it was that it took place under the Globe. It was like our elementary school craft fair.

2) Spending £20 on dinner for foods class. While waaay more than I would usually spend, the food was pretty good (pumpkin pasta, chinese sirloin, chocolate tart) and I felt very grown up and fancy.

3) Getting to church without anything weird happening! Hip hip hooray!

4) Finally getting to the Banqueting House (Fifth time's a charm!). It was not that exciting, but Charles I was killed there. Isn't that cheerful?

5)Buying bath products at Lush. If you go to the website, you'll see why I was practically in heaven. (lush.com, but it's cheaper here). It was so much fun!

6) Going to Oxford. We got to hear a lecture from a Sikh woman about her experiences, and it was fascinating. The town itself is cool and very old, and almost made me want to go to Oxford. Then, I came to my senses and realized how pricey that could get. And also, it's more fun in Provo. I can't believe I just wrote that.

7) Going to concerts. This includes classical quartets and college choirs, but my fun experience was at the Morning Runner concert. Can you believe it? Quiet old Elisabeth, at a real concert. We went out to Camden Town, which is a little bit ghetto, to a place called the Barfly where Coldplay and Oasis used to play. The area was small and dark and LOUD! We had balled up toilet paper in our ears, and it was still really loud. Most of the people around us were drinking or smoking (including some illegal substances), so you can imagine I smelled great when I left there. The first band, Sunshine Underground, was "good for a first band", or so I am told. I enjoyed it. The second band, Absentee, reminded me of lumberjacks because they wore a lot of plaid and had really scruffy hair. Also, the lead singer had a very low, gravelly voice. During this set, this weird guy was about six inches away from my back blowing smoke in my face. I was NOT amused. However, this was all worth it for the last band, Morning Runner. Ana, you especially would love and adore this band. They were great! Great music, great performance, good rapport with the audience. I totally want to buy their CD when it comes out in February.

8) Shopping at cheap stores! Finally, five days before I leave, I found all the cheap stores. Figures... Oh well, found some cool stuff anyways.

9) Eating dinner with ward members. Our ward is so good and loving to us! They keep inviting us over for dinner, giving us presents, etc. I feel like I don't deserve this love and affection. I've been working in the nursery, not doing something amazing. My friend Kelli told me that I should take this experience and give back to someone else later, which I've been thinking about a lot recently.

10) Missing you guys and counting down the days! I only have 4 days here, you guys, and I will be back in California on Wednesday night!

The English Muffin Goes Gourmet

So, umm, long time no post. Sorry about that. The line for computers can get a little bit crazy and I always felt bad about kicking people off of homework to update my blog.

Don't you all just love finals? I thought I might share with you the strangeness that is my finals schedule here, class by class. London Walks: no final. Hurrah! Religion: 25 question multiple choice and two-page comparative paper. I can deal with that. History of London: Journals (easy), three page paper about Parliament due after we leave (not bad, and done) and test on Monday (haven't even started studying.) Philosophy: He cancelled the test and moved the percentages over everything else, including my big fat terrible paper. Nasty. Now, for the true fun, ladies and gentlemen, I present my foods class: 93-page journals of my food experience for the entire semester. Time-consuming at best. Today's final (in an hour and a half) We have an hour to prepare and clean up a recipe. We're making potato gnocchi with tomato sauce with six of us. Then, we have to write up a tasting and a two to three page paper about the history of the dish. That's 10 percent of my grade. The journals are 90.

So basically, I have no idea what my grades will look like for this semester. But surprisingly, I really don't care. My grades were not the ultimate goal of this program, so I'm just happy that I've been here and classes are almost over!!! Good luck on finals everybody!

And Then There Were Twelve...

So, I'm terribly sorry for not posting recently, but I finally got out of my illness-induced stupor and was blindsided by the crushing reality of deadlines. Yeah, I am not a big fan of homework. So, that post-Thanksgiving weekend was mostly marked by me sitting around in my pajamas, watching chick flicks and doing whatever easy homework I could (short walk in London, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire-chocolate history edition.)By the time I finally felt better, I realized that I have a fat ton of things due pretty soon. Yikes!!!!! So, I've been trying to fit fun things around my homework. Monday night, we went to go see And Then There Were None, which is my favorite Agatha Christie book EVER, and the staging was great too. I also had some fun that day just wandering around museums by myself. I really enjoy being able to do things independently.

Tuesday was marked by the Christmas lights in Trafalgar Square, which would have been cooler on a more impressive tree. Seriously, Norway gives England this tree to thank the UK for freeing them from the Nazis, and it looks like a giant Charlie Brown tree. Hearing the carols and hanging out with everybody was fun, though, and it put me in a nice Christmas mood. Wednesday, I saw most of Westminster Abbey and finally took my ride on the London Eye. That's the giant ferris wheel that was also on the Amazing Race, and you know my weakness for all things Amazing Race. Recently, I have mostly just been doing the last of Christmas shopping for my family, but it's fun.

So, what do you guys think of the nickname Libby? At least half of the people here call me that, and I've finally gotten really used to it. It almost might be weird to go back to being called Lis or Elisabeth. Ah, the fun of random nicknames.

You may ask, why eleven? The play title uses NONE, silly bean. Well, it's because I will be home in twelve days!

Let Us Be Thankful

So, as this Thanksgiving season rolls around, I have realized that I have so much to be grateful for. In fact, it would be a really really long list of things to be grateful for, so I will spare you most of that list and give you the "relevant to my life this past week" version. Soo....here we go.

1) Being able to just chill at the center. I've been feeling a little under the weather, but everyone else is tired too, so I've spent a lot of time sitting and talking in the kitchen, on the stairs, in the classroom, on my bed, you name it. It's great.

2) When I don't want to chill out, there's lots to see and do. This week, I saw Phantom of the Opera (exciting staging, wonderful Phantom, disappointing Christine, but what can you do? We got really good seats for half price), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which I liked, but found it kind of rushed), an auction at Christie's, and the coolest glass and sculpture exhibits ever at the V & A. I've discovered that I really like glasswork.

3) I actually enjoyed Thanksgiving! As many of you know, I am not really all the fond of Thanksgiving. I just spent the morning relaxing, doing a little Christmas shopping and bought myself a really pretty sweater. The food was fantastic! We just had turkey breast instead of a whole big scary turkey, then we had this yummy spicy stuffing, squash casserole, jell-o salad, crescent rolls, vegetables, mashed potatoes, and three kinds of pie. YUMMY!!!!! Everybody helped out in the cooking or setting up or decorating (except me, because I missed the sign-up sheet and slept through decorating), and it was just really fun. I felt very at home. Later, we all wrote cards for servicemen as a kind of "thankful" thing.

That night, we all got roped into a Thanksgiving talent show. Each room (or half of room) had to come up with a talent. My room decided to have the "Digestive-Eating World Cup". A digestive is a type of cookie, for the record. This, I think, was a lot funnier in theory than practice, and I am never going to try to eat 5 at a time again. Ick. Needless to say, we did not win the prize. It went to the guys,who, as usual, impersonated SNL Celebrity Jeopardy, which I don't think counts because they do it ALL. THE. TIME. We also had individual talents, and my friend MJ and I did a flute and violin duet of three of our favorite Christmas songs (Noel Nouvelet, Stars were Gleaming and that Mary, Mary, come see the child round that I forget the name of). We both thought it was last-minute and lousy, but we won the "Mayflower Medallion" for individual talent, so go figure. My favorite was the other winner, which was three of my friends who did an interpretive Irish dance representing how you feel when you're done with dish crew. We ended the night with Garfield's Thanksgiving and Muppet Christmas Carol, and it was just great all in all.

P.S. Jessi, Brandon says, and I quote "Tell Jessi something cool from me. No, wait, ummm, tell her I am proud of her as a home teacher."

An Ode to Public Transportation

I know I just posted about five minutes ago, but I couldn't let today go without some sort of commemmoration. A little background: I go to church very, very far away from where I live. It can take anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours to get there, taking first the tube, then a bus, then another bus, and then the tram. Every single week, something happens that is new and exciting. For example, that first week we tried to take the train, which meant we took a scenic two-mile walk to church from the train station. That next week, when we needed to find an alternate way, our trip director had never even heard of our ward. I should have taken that as a bad omen.

From then on, it's been something different every week. Either it was the time that the bus just stopped running about a mile before the stop we needed, or the time we accidentally got off the bus about five stops too early because we weren't paying attention. One week a group of three male tourists asked to take a picture with us and one week it cost us £1.10 just to walk through a train station (GRRR!). You make think the stories would stop there, but no, they keep coming. One week, the line with out stop on it just never came, so we had to take a very creative route home. Yet another week, we had our bus driver chase down our connecting bus (as I've already told you about). Every so often, my friend Heather does something hilarious like walk into a pole or throw away her ticket. But today, friends, today beat them all.

It started out uneventfully enough, but that was soon to change. As we got off the Tube to catch our first bus, Heather realized that the bus was already at the stop so she darted out into oncoming traffic to try to stop the bus. The ploy worked, but the day just got stranger. After we got off the second bus, I was waiting at the tram station with Tasha while Heather went to the bathroom. Now, I have to give you some background on what I looked like today. It is freezing! So, in addition to a long-sleeve brown sweater and a long tan corduroy skirt, I was wearing my big puffy tan corduroy coat, zipped up and with my hood on. To make matters worse, I was wearing navy blue track pants under my skirt and big clunky black shoes. Yeah, I looked pretty hideous.

So, imagine me, a tan corduroy fashion-challenged Eskimo, waiting at the tram stop. This 30-year-old African man came up to me at Tasha and asked if he could talk to me. I just assumed he wanted directions, so I said sure. Then, he turned to Tasha, and asked HER if he could talk to me. This was when I got an inkling that it was a strange situation. Then, he started talking about how he fancied me and wanted to get to know me better. I was so freaked out! I just kind of told him that I was about to go to church, so sorry, I wasn't interested. He was hurt, and was all like " Fine, you don't even want to know why I wanted to talk to you." So, we walked quickly away and got on the tram, but then when we got off, he was right in front of us. When he turned around and saw us, he just started running away. Weird. What grade do I get for that, Ana?

In addition to this experience, I nearly sat up into a metal bar, Heather walked straight past the ward building, and we ran down the platform at the tube stop just so we would be closer to the exit. Boy, did people look at us funny! Words cannot express how excited I am to come home to uneventful transportation.

Free-for-All

Recently, it has just seemed like there is so much for me to do in London without spending very much money at all. I think that is what I will miss the most in Provo. Thursday, we tried to go to the Banqueting House (Charles I was killed nearby), but it was closed for a government function so we went to the Cabinet War Rooms instead. These actually cost money, but it was so worth it to see the place where England ran their WWII homefront operations. Especially if you are a history nut like me, it was really exciting. That night, though, we had so much fun. We went to Covent Garden to see them light up their Christmas tree, and they had performances from Stomp and G4 (this Il-Divo-esque male quartet that I'd seen earlier in the semester in Hyde Park). It was such a blast, and it was the kind of thing that would never be free anywhere else. Friday, we braved the freezing cold South Bank to browse through the used book market (very free/freezing),and then went inside the National Theatre to look at a set design contest and a jewelry exhibit. They were both just unique and fun and made me wish I had a ton of money to buy all that jewelry! Afterwards, we went to a free string quartet concert at St. Martin's in the Field, where I heard the most amazing Shostakovich piece ever. Saturday, I went back to Portobello Road. It feels so weird to go back and compare my impressions from that first day that I went! Also, we saw a matinee of Les Mis (most definitely NOT free, but half-price for students) which was just amazing and strongly recommended to anyone that goes to London.

Because I'm Fantastic, Darling

So, usually I feel like I have lots of exciting news to tell, but today I feel like I need to extend lots of excitement on all of your behalf. So, congratulations on upcoming weddings, new engagements, new boyfriends, moves to Provo, or just exciting dreams. Thanks for keeping me posted! You guys are awesome!

Well, in my inner mind, these past few days were supposed to be relaxing. I need to just stop thinking that, because that really just isn't working for me. Monday, I went to this Islam in Britain conference. I am so fascinated by the Islamic religion. Don't worry, I'm not going to start draping myself in veils or anything, I just enjoy learning about it. Anyways, we went to several lectures and people kept taking pictures of me. I felt like I was famous! I tried my best to look studious and interested and cover the doodles I was making in my notebook, and of course they were taking pictures of the side of my face that was totally broken out. So, should random pictures of me show up somewhere, they are possibly from this conference.

Monday, a girl from my group went home. She had been depressed for a while and finally decided that she was best of leaving London. It just about broke my heart entirely to see her leave, like there was something more that I could have done even though I know there wasn't. I hope that she is doing better now that she's at home. Anyways, we made her a movie as a going-away present, and I think she really enjoyed it even though all of us cringed watching ourselves on camera. We also played Jeopardy, my favorite over-competitive game. I must say though, Jespardy was way better.

Tuesday was my roommate MJ's birthday. The two of us are mutually obsessed with digestives (a chocolate-covered graham cracker like biscuit), so we did the coolest thing with them for her birthday. I wish I could take credit for it, but that all goes to Brandon. We took four rolls of digestives in milk, caramel, mint, and orange (Cath, did you know they came in that many flavors?), and covered them with pictures of other people with the initials of MJ (Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Monterey Jack from Rescue Rangers, "Mr. and Mrs. Jones", and MJ from Spiderman) and wrote about how she was better than all of them. She totally loved it! I love birthdays!

Yesterday, we went to the British Museum, home of the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. My entire life, I have thought that the Elgin Marbles were a bunch of little round glass balls on a pedestal under a glass case somewhere. This is not true. They are statues from the Parthenon. Boy, did I feel stupid. I'm sure all of you knew this already, but for some reason, that was totally left out of my education. We also went back to this cool aerial world map I saw in September and hopped the fence to take pictures. I felt like a rebel!

These past few days have also made me really glad for the wonderful girls at the London Centre. Due to various deadlines, rough drafts, people, etc., my moods have gone up and down like crazy these past few days. I feel like whenever I'm stressed or going psycho, someone has been there to catch me. So, massive thanks going out to Kalais, Genna, Mary Jane, Kelli, Rachel, Leslie, and Heather Stay, who have quite frankly been awesome in helping me figure things out. Please don't read this and worry, I really have been doing well. Everyone has bad days now and then. Loveya!

On the Shoulders of Giants

Thursday morning, we began the very last of our long bus/hostel trips. This time, it was to York. My initial thoughts: What's in York besides an archbishop and peppermint patties? As I was to find out, there are also Vikings and lots of narrow streets. We tried to go to the minster (big church) first thing off, but they had a funeral so showing around American tourists was pretty low on their list. Instead, we went to the Jorvik Viking Center. Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean as a really low-budget Vikings of the North Sea, and you have a good idea of this museum. They tried to be really authentic, right down to the smell, so I was trying to smell my sweater the whole time to avoid the stench of urine. Yuck. I also learned that my name is a really really long one to spell with Viking character stamps. We spent the rest of the night wandering through York and its cute little tiny streets and going to a lecture by a famous Shakespeare professor (which was the whole reason we took the trip in the first place)

Friday, we picked up, went to the minster (which was actually pretty cool), were given time for lunch, and then left York for good.I must admit, I wasn't too sad to leave hostels with co-ed bathrooms, which really scared me when I was brushing my teeth and a guy came out of the toilet. So, next stop? Liverpool. There's a good reason there are no pictures of Liverpool on my camera. Liverpool is the home of the Beatles, who I've decided were compelled to make up great music because their city is BORING. We wandered around a maritime museum, which was actually set up very well, and another Tate Gallery, which made me homesick for London. We were going to go to a Beatles museum, but I wasn't going to pay 6 pounds (about 11 dollars) for it. We may have seen more of Liverpool, but on our way out of the museum block, we got whistled and sworn at by a bunch of men, so I decided to cut my losses and head back to the hostel, which quite possibly used to be a factory.

I woke up Saturday morning feeling like I'd been hit by a truck. I've said it before, but there's a reason that hostel and hostile are such closely related words. We were given a grand total of fifteen minutes to see the Preston temple/MTC, which is beautiful like all temples. I have more pictures of fifteen minutes of the Preston temple than I have of sixteen or so hours in Liverpool. Our next scheduled item was a guided church history tour of Preston, which I have to admit I was pretty grumpy about, because it was raining. Luckily, the tour guide started to crack me up from the beginning and he was kind enough to let us stay on the bus until it stopped raining. Soo....this is where the story gets really fun.

Tour Guide: Everybody, look at that Subway on your left. There's a street to the right called the Old Cock Yard.

Inner-Elisabeth-Apathetic-Voice: Woo hoo. It's another old stony street. I guess it looks pretty neat.

Tour Guide: Here was the home of some guy whose name I can't pronounce. Umm...Alexander Knee-boar.

This is the point where I realized he was talking about my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Alexander Neibaur, pioneer linguist and dentist. I kind of freaked out and started whispering "He's a relative!" to all the people around me and forcing people on the other side of the bus to try to take pictures of the Subway for me. Luckily, we got out and walked past it later so I have better pictures of the ancestral home than a big yellow blur. I spent the rest of the day so excited and happy to be walking where my family walked so many years before. What a great experience! That day was just awesome, from the tour to finally going home to London and watching White Christmas. Now, my trip is just London. No more day trips. I am actually really excited about that. Down with buses and hostels!