Tower of London

im very pleased to say that today lillie and i got up at 8 this morning and went on a run through hyde park. i was so impressed with myself. i wasnt really looking forward to going, but i didnt want to go the whole SA without working out after making the effort to bring my work out clothes--which takes up space and weight in my suitcase which is very valuable to me. so we left and it was great, i wasnt so out of shape than i thought i was. we also kinda got lost in hyde park which was kinda interesting. its so massive and we just got turned around a bit. but it was ok cause it didnt make our run any longer. so we came back to the flat and got ready for class. while getting ready i burned the carpet into my hair. i had turned the straightener on and put it on the carpet and it burned the carpet. so when i put the straighnter on my hair i got red and black melted carpet in my hair. i freaked and ran to the kitchen but it basically came right out. still it was pretty funny. class was really enjoyable today. its just so laid back and today i felt like it was more interesting. its like a dream class cause we go to lecture and learn and discuss different things, yet have like no homework or assignments. its how all classes at school should be, it just makes it so much more enjoyable. an example of how laid back it is: im suppose to do a presentation on the liverpudlian dialect with this girl abby, well we thought it wasnt until thursday but in class don asked us if we were going to present today, we said we werent ready so he was just like "ok thats fine, you can do it tomorrow." And another aspect of the class that i like is that i know everyone. i just kinda sat back in class today i realized that i was friends with everyone in the room--which never happens at normal classes at BYU. so that makes it more fun. we also had a guest lecturer today--Dr. Laura Wright from Cambridge University. She talked to us about the english language of the 18th century, mainly focusing on the language used in like shops. i really liked it. she was great to listen to too. her voice was just calming and relaxing and it like almost put me to sleep. haha, not cause it was boring but just nice to listen to.

after class we went straight to the tower of london. we all packed ourselves food so that we didnt have to go home or buy food for lunch today. so i ate my food at the tube and as we were walking there. even though we tried to avoid spending money m'kynzi had to make a stop at ben's cookies before we left for the tube station. and because her and cathy were getting cookies i had to get one too. we discovered ben's cookies our first day in london. which is a good thing and a bad thing. they are incredible. (actually dad, when i say they are incredible i mean they arent very good at all) in dublin we were obsessed with the queen of tarts and in london we are obsessed with ben's cookies. we find ourselves taking about getting a cookie there almost everyday. so i enjoyed a white chocolate macademia nut cookie. what a surprise huh? so then we got to to the tower and were right on time for a tour by the beefeaters. our warden was very funny and really interesting. its great that i already sorta understand the things he is telling me just from what i have learned in school and from being here. then we went straight for the crown jewels. its interesting being here again, for the first time i would notice something that jogged a memory from when i was here the first time. but the only thing i remembered about seeing the crown jewels was that it was amazing, very blue and that we walked on moving belt. but it was amazing. we went down one side of the jewels and then decided we needed to go on the other side to see the jewels from both sides. we also saw the biggest punch bowl ever created--it was HUGE and completely gold of course. and there was an amazing salt shaker that was like half of my size. then we went into the white tower to see like the weaponry, but it wasnt as cool as i was expecting and it was super hot in there so it wasnt enjoyable. and thats when i started to see things that i remembered from our last trip. it wasnt anything big but i just rememberd a certain wall that was by the ravens and i just remember sitting by it on our last trip. so that was kinda exciting. i tried to search for the torture chamber but i couldnt find it. i think laura and kelly made that part up cause they wanted to leave me there and force me to eat mashed potatoes. then we walked out of the tower to see the tower bridge. i tried to take a picture to recreate the one of my kelly and laura where we sat on the bench and pretended not to see mom and dad, but i couldnt quite remember what it looked like. then we went over to buy some fish and chips. m'kynzi said they were the best in london. but after we bought them she said that the chips are the best and that last time she got them she didnt eat the fish. but it didnt matter cause it was amazing! it was only my second time eating fish and chips but it was so good! best fish ever. i definitely want to hit that up again.

after we ate we went up to st. pauls cathedral to witness the evensong. we did that because it is an elective site for our class and if you go to the church at evensong then you get in for free! so kinda like kill two birds with one stone. it took us like 20 mins to walk there, but we didnt want to be late so we walked so fast! and it was so hot today so it was not that enjoyable. but we eneded up making it right one time. so the church is absolutely gorgeous! it is so big and beautiful! i definitely wished that i could remember more things that i learned from my medieval class because we learned all about the symbolism of cathedrals but now i can barely remember anything. evensong was interesting. they read a few verses and we listened to the choir sing (which we had to stand while they were singing--so not fun) and then listen to them pray. during one of the sermons i took a little nap--very enjoyable. it was just interesting that i felt nothing in that church. you could definitely tell that they spirit was not there. i actually almost had a worried or unerving feeling while i was there cause i knew what they were saying and how they were worshipping just wasnt right. so evensong lasted about an hour, and after that we just decided to go home. we were all pretty tired from being out all day in the hot sun and on top of that i needed to get home and work on my dialect presentation--which only took about 20 mins to put together. thank goodness for wikipedia. but we had to take the central line to get home and it was SO packed! i dont know whats worse: rush hour freeway traffic or rush hour tube traffic. i vote the tube traffic. it is gross to be smashed in between strangers on a hot, stuffy small space. we were like sandwhiched inbetween too many sweaty people and we were getting sweaty too. so not enjoyable. and we also have to put up with crazy euopeans checking us out. m'kynzi had this creeper staring at her the whole time we were on the tube! it was so ridiculous. i swear we get so many people either checking us out or saying something to us as we walk by on the street. crazy euros. and least its not as bad here as it was in ireland. they are so much worse! . but once we got home we have all just being sitting around our family room on our computers all night. kinda sad, but a much needed rest after being busy busy all the time. well i dont have too many pictures to put up because my camera died during the day so m'kynzi had to use her camera to take picutres of me and im too lazy to get them from her now. ill probably put them up tomorrow. ok its not letting me put up pictures, you will have to wait until tomorrow.