adventure time!

so this week has been ALL ABOUT adventures. my first adventure began in the airport as soon as i got to my gate. i was just sitting there people-watching everyone, noticing how everyone was all bundled up and ready for the chilly winter in london. then i realized- WHERE IS MY COAT? i brought one coat with me to the airport and it was the only one i had for london, so yes, i was dramatically freaking out. and what do i do what i'm having a breakdown? call my parents, of course. so i called them as i power-walked my way back to security to see if i left it there. my parents calmly told me it would be there and i just needed to ask an airport worker if they had seen it! i was terrified to ask though because whenever i think about the airport workers at the houston airport, all i think is "they are not as nice at the workers at the salt lake airport!". but i need to be more optimistic. i arrived at the security check and asked a lady if she had seen a black coat, and she very excitedly went behind the counter, grabbed my coat, and told me that she was so glad that i remembered it because winter is too cold to not have a great coat! and then she wished me a safe flight with a dazzling smile! you could say that made my day. i know it was just a coat, but i didn't want ANYTHING to go wrong on my trip. so i quickly made my way back to my gate and waited to board. soon, my friends from my study abroad program who were also flying from houston to london arrived, so we were all able to hang out until we boarded the plane! so during our two-hour delay, i made my last phone calls and sent my last texts to my friends and family in the US. this was kind of sad, but i knew i was in store for an amazing adventure that i would never forget!

now for the adventure…
my flight left about 4:04 on monday afternoon and i was hoping to sleep the whole way so i could be up and energized all the next day! however, i have an issue with sleeping on planes, so i just TRIED to sleep for the whole flight. haha it was kind of rough. and i was sitting next to this really large man, squished against the window the whole flight, and i was scared to ask him to get up for me, so i remained there the whole flight. haha at least he seemed nice though! and i'm very thankful i had the window seat! (THANKS, MOM AND DAD!!!) i think my favorite part of the flight was listening to the flight attendants. THEY WERE ALL BRITISH and i seriously cannot get enough of that accent! i especially loved when the male flight attendant asked if i wanted barbecue chicken for dinner or "paster" and meatballs ;) haha LOVE IT. but the pasta and meatballs was quite impressive! that meal also included a dinner roll, a salad, and a brownie! delicious! i was thankful that this meal didn't make me sick like last time i ate airplane food. haha
before i knew it, we had landed in london at about 7 AM london time. it was still pretty dark out, but i just knew it was beautiful and amazing already! we quickly got off of the airplane and went through customs (yes, i successfully made it through. probably only because my guy felt bad for me because i didn't know what was going on. haha) and all of our luggage made it through in perfect time, so we met up with our shuttle driver and were on our way to our flat before we knew it! our driver's name was mike and he was so cute!!! apparently other drivers were kind of rude and drove in silence, not paying attention to the "dumb, american kids" in the back of their shuttles. haha but mike was so nice!!! he was like a little old grandpa, and he was so interested to hear about our lives and was telling us things we need to know while we're here! these were the top three best things he said to us…
1) "don't shoot the deer"
2) "we say "trousers" not "pants". "pants" here means "underwear"
3) "don't americans all just make their own tv shows?" like he thought we were all just like people on jersey shore, making videos of our lives trying to get famous. hahah
THANKS, MIKE! he was my first, official british friend :)

this was a big deal. this was my very first snapchat from london and the replies of some of my best friends. haha gotta love them.

eventually, after getting lost a couple of times but still in good cheer, we made it to our flat! this is it! isn't it just adorable? i absolutely adore it!!! (i'll post more pictures of the inside of our flat once we all make our beds and make it look nice ;))

this is the view out of my window in our room! lovely, isn't it?

we live in kensington, in the hyde park gate flats, which are right across from THE hyde park. and we're right across the street from kensington palace! so yes, it's basically like we're royalty. haha but really, it is BEAUTIFUL and so nice!!! (more pictures to come later)

oh and i can't forget about my awesome roommates! i'm rooming with my friend from my BYU ward this past fall, Ashlyn, and her second cousin, Madie, and our new friend, Christine! they are all so wonderful and i'm so thankful for them because i know i wouldn't be able to do this without them!

so we made it to our flat tuesday in the late morning, and we didn't have much to do until our orientation meeting that night at 6:00 PM. we all just wanted to sleep, but apparently that would make our jet lag worse, so we didn't give in to sleep! instead, we unpacked, walked around the area a bit, and got lunch at whole foods! we were seriously zombies though. haha later that day, we had our orientation meeting and then got ready for bed and fell asleep at 8:00 PM. it was the best sleep of my life until about 2:00 AM when i woke up wide awake and couldn't fall back asleep for two hours! but at least my roommates did the same thing, so we could keep each other company! haha and thankfully, we have wifi in our flats, so we were able to keep ourselves busy that way too :)

well i'll write more about starting our real lives in london in a second, but i'm going to take a break! blogging is really draining ;) hahah i am so thankful to be here! everything is beautiful and everything we see and experience is amazing. i'm so excited to keep up with this blog so it can be like y'all are here with me!

from london with love, 

pep xoxox