well on monday, I GOT SICK. and it's been a really rough week. like really rough. because most of the time, i couldn't breathe. but everyone else in my room had gotten it already, so i was pretty much just waiting for it to finally hit me. haha thankfully, it wasn't anything more serious than a cold, but trying to enjoy cool field trips when you're tired and grumpy all the time isn't too fun. BUT I'M ALMOST OVER IT. success!
on tuesday, we went to thai square for lunch, and it changed my life. BEST PAD THAI EVER. seriously. we loved it so much, we went back for more on thursday… shhh……. haha (and we decided it's going to be our thursday tradition) you have to try it though! next time you're in london. go to the thai square in south ken and tell them that paige sent you ;) tuesday was a major food day though. don't judge me. after thai square, we went to a cute little creamery place and got ice cream. SO GOOD. they had so many cool flavors like ferrero rocher, kinder bueno, and a lot more that i can't think of. haha everything is just so classy here! i got classic chocolate ice cream and it came with white chocolate shavings on top. like can you say classy? #CLASSY
FOR DINNER we went to the kensington creperie and ate some delicious crepes! they have all kinds of sweet and savory crepes. i recommend either the pesto crepe or the hazelnut chocolate crepe. yum. i really hope i can try every single one before i leave. that might be hard, but i'm up for the challenge! ;)
so here are some pictures of the best food day of my life. haha thank goodness i could still taste at this point!
we got together again this week to watch the bachelor!!!!!!!!!!! #teamandi
AND WE WENT TO HARRODS
it is truly a magical place. it's too bad that i was sick that day though because i was wearing a tshirt and a hoodie walking through the most glamorous place EVER and i felt like a hobo. haha so i decided that next time i go, i'm going to wear my prom dress to prove that i know how to look nice. hahah i doubt anyone there really cared what i look like, but i did! and i've decided that my new dream job is to work in one of the handbag departments of harrods. when i was walking through that section of the store, i was in HEAVEN. i swear my mouth was hanging open the whole time. like i could live there and be the happiest girl in the world. :))))))) i cannot wait to go back!!!!
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| it's just as beautiful on the outside as it is inside |
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| i also really enjoyed the candy section, obvi |
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on WEDNESDAY, we had our field trip!!! we woke up at 6:00 AM and met up with the group to go on one of the best field trips of my life! i sat next to audrey on the bus! audrey is one of my best friends on this trip! she is so sweet and so nice and so helpful when it comes to traveling around london because she used to live here. haha but i love her! SO MUCH. this is us on the bus. lucky for her, she can sleep in moving vehicles... and i don't think i'll ever get tired of flashing a peace sign when i don't know what to do in pictures. she doesn't know i took this picture though- i'm tempted to send it into BYU sleeps :)
our first stop on the trip was St. Albans Cathedral. it was beautiful. of course. like every other building we've seen on this trip. the inside was especially beautiful though. every aspect of the architecture is so intricate and just…. perfect! and lovely. because everything in london is "lovely" ;)
when we finished walking through the cathedral, we walked around outside to explore (and because our bus was a million miles away), and it was one of the most beautiful sights i've ever seen. london is so green right now, i can't believe it. everything is so lush and picturesque.
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| st albans school |
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| mom, you need to have this door someday |
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| there are pigeons EVERYWHERE. it's so london. |
maybe gray and overcast isn't your kind of beautiful, but i'm obsessed with it.
the next stop on our field trip was CAMBRIDGE. if you haven't gone, you need to go!!!! it was so great. the city/campus is soooo fun! we got to explore a little bit and they have the cutest market and little shops there! i even bought myself a cambridge sweatshirt because i'm a poser ;)
we went on a tour of the campus, and it seriously made me want to transfer. our tour guide's name was hugh and he is the cutest old man ever. i love all old men, but he had a british accent, so he wins as the ultimate old man. hahah he led us around to all of the colleges within the university. i loved all of the old, beautiful buildings! yes family, i just admitted to liking old buildings. all of the entryways into each of the colleges were so grand. one of the highlights was visiting the library. this is a pretty famous library and it holds the original winnie the pooh manuscript and some original papers of shakespeare, charles darwin, and isaac newton. we weren't allowed to take any pictures or stay in there longer than five minutes, but it was the coolest thing ever. it was exactly how i would imagine an old library. large, dusty old books EVERYWHERE. it even smelled like i imagined an old library would smell. fantastic. my other favorite part of the campus was the king's college chapel. the inside was especially magnificent. there was sooooo much stained glass and the ceilings were perfectly detailed and i couldn't stop looking up. (also i have this weird things for ceilings. they fascinate me. weird? whatever :))
later on in the evening, we had the chance to attend evensong in the chapel. COOLEST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. we sat and listened to sermons and listened to the most angelic, a cappella boys choir on the planet. i probably just loved it so much because it allowed me to go back to my choir nerd roots. but it was spectacular. their perfectly straight-tone gregorian-chant sounding songs and hymns were haunting and beautiful. i'm obsessed. it's fine. i didn't want to leave.
picture time.
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| walking through the streets of cambridge |
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| HUGH <3 |
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| the outside of king's college chapel |
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| LOOK AT THAT CEILING |
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| christine, audrey, and me |
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| look at that beautiful, london sky |
also, i need to mention that bought some chelsea boots this week. and they're adorable. and i bought them IN chelsea. cool, huh? i wear them almost everyday because a) they're adorable b) they're all the rage here and c) all of the shoes i brought with my from the states hurtttttttt. haha so that kind of stinks, but now i'll know what i need to bring next time i come to london :)
speaking of shopping-- they have the BEST urban outfitters here. like i usually like urban alright, but the store here is AWESOMEEEEEE. it's three stories, and i feel like that's enough evidence to convince you that it's awesome. haha but really. come here and check it out.
also, on thursday night, we saw hamlet for our shakespeare class! it was really good- it was so cool to see it london, but i think my brother, carter, was a better claudius ;) haha the theater was TINY. even smaller than the black box theater at home, but that just made it a more intimate experience. i am so impressed that those actors could memorize those lines! i'm preparing for a group project in my shakespeare class and we have to memorize and perform a scene from othello, and it's probably one of the hardest things i've had to do. ever. haha memorizing is one thing, but memorizing shakespeare is roughhhhh. but then again, i guess those actors are really good at it because that's just what they do, but i'm still impressed!
and that night was the first time we had a really heavy, london rain shower! that's what i've been waiting for this whole time!!!! i loveeeeeee rain, but i think i'll like it more once i buy rain boots and a rain jacket. haha that's the first thing on my to-do list! hopefully i get them soon because the whole rain thing is happening more often nowadayssss….
on friday, we had another "london walk". this time, we walked around southwark and south of the thames river. it was sooooo beautiful. just like everything else in london. it was fun to walk around a different part of town though! usually, we're stuck in kensington, so we always love exploring :)
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| everyone was taking selfies with the tower bridge, so i had to do it too. i know, i really need to work on my selfie game |
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| ashlyn's the best london walk leader EVER |
we found this really cool graffiti spot/skateboard park south of the thames! we thought it was cool, so we used it as a backdrop for a photoshoot. naturally.
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| my favorite piece of graffiti i've seen here so far |
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| my cute friend, christine |
on this london walk, we made a stop at shakespeare's globe theatre and had a nice tour there! i loved learning about the history of the building and looking at all of the original costumes! i just wish that we were going to be here longer because they start having shows there in april/may and that's right when we leave! how cool would it be to see a shakespeare play at the globe theatre? TOO COOL. but oh well, it was great to be there :) we also stopped by the southwark cathedral, where shakespeare attended church when he was young. the building itself was beautiful because it was in the classic gothic style. and the inside was cool because they had a special memorial for shakespeare. i was kind of fangirling there because i loveeeee shakespeare! so basically, this was a pretty awesome day for me :)
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| the queen sat in one of these boxes when she saw a show here. legit. |
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| my boyfriend, shakespeare |
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| southwark cathedral |
to end our walk, we stopped at a pub called "the anchor" and christine and i shared a chicken and mushroom pie! DELISH.
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| anchor, anchor ;) |
anyway on to something more important… guess what? remember how i saw my freshman ward bishop last week at the hyde park chapel? he has a stake calling here, and he and his wife gave talks in my ward that day! haha crazy, huh? it's like he's following me! haha or just keeping an eye on me :) so that was fun! it was nice to have another familiar face there! also, something cool about our ward-- most of the members are nigerian! it's super cool. i love it!
so after sacrament meeting, we ran up to the bishop and gave him our information! he is one of the sweetest men i've ever met! he's from arizona, so we have that US bond. haha but really the best way to describe him is "gentle". you can just tell he is a really GOOD person. he's awesome. and he put us right to work! haha he had the primary president come over and tell us what to do immediately! the primary president is like my new role model. her name is miracle and she has so much energy and so much love for everything and everyone! gosh i love her. she's so fun. anyway- here's what we have to do. for the second hour, we sit in singing time/sharing time with the junior primary kids and just make sure they're listening! THE KIDS ARE SO CUTE. british children are the best. i want some. haha really though, these kids are great. they're all so intelligent, excited to learn, and really polite! there are 12 kids total in junior primary and it's so fun. for the third hour, ali and i are team-teachers with another woman in the ward. so we'll be teaching every other week! we only have three kids in our class, so it's not bad at all! maybe next week, i'll take pictures and tell you more about them! i could just gush about them for hours and hours, but i don't want to do that to you right now :) haha they're just the most sincere, most adorable children on the planet. i can't wait to have more stories about them :)
so that will be my normal sunday for the next few months! we leave our flat at about 12:00 and get back around 5:00 and have just enough time for a quick nap and dinner before our weekly fireside at 7:00! our program directors love keeping us busy, that's for sure! luckily, our church is moving up to 10:00 in february, so we'll have more of the day to catch up on random things and SLEEP.
last thing, i know everyone always says this, but this is the first time i've really experienced it for myself. i am SO thankful the church is the same wherever you go :) i'm not going to go on and on about it, but i am extremely thankful.
well that's about it for now! :) sorry i'm a little behind. this blogging thing is harder than i thought! i'll be better :)
OH MY GOODNESS i almost forgot to explain why i titled this post "strike of the food thief". here's the story. so twenty girls live in my flat, right? well there had been a lot of complaints about food missing and no one knew what was going on. so everyone was all suspicious of each other and we even had a flat meeting about only eating our own food. then one day, there was a note left on the fridge. it said "hello apartment. i will not stop eating your food. i need it more than you do, and i don't feel bad about it. okay i feel a little bad. love always." hahaha that was most likely a joke. but still, everyone's watching their food like a hawk to make sure no one eats it. NO ONE'S SAFE. haha i'll let you know if we ever figure out who this food thief is. stay tuned.
from london with love,
pep xoxox
ps sorry if you follow me on instagram because you've already seen most of these pictures…. whoops
pps it's official. i will not find my husband here. i can't get past the bad teeth. i just can't do it.
