Canterbury & London Temple Trip

On the bus one last time...

Canterbury Cathedral

As you can tell the Cathedral was absolutely gorgeous...

... but after 395839 in one semester... It was a love hate relationship. haha

We had the whole day to explore this cute little town so of course we found ourselves in Starbucks. Steamed milk with your choice of holiday flavor... Made doing homework all day that much better.

Blockbuster? In Canterbury? Who knew they were still around!

Last hostel EVER. They finally put us ten all together.

I can honestly say it was all of ours favorite night together. 

I love these girls with all my heart. I can't imagine not being with them 24/7.

The London Temple

This is the site where my Grandparents were sealed 

over 50 years ago together. 

So happy I was able to come to where our family started.

I honestly couldn't have thought of a more perfect ending to the semester than being in the temple with my London family. It was such an amazing experience all being together dressed in white singing hymns, the spirit was unbelievably strong. Also being baptized by one of your professors was definitely a new experience. Only at BYU.

The church is true!

The "Cave".

This bed or as I liked to call it "the cave" will hold many memories.

Countless times I've hit my head, been blocked in there, felt trapped, a little out of the loop... 

But I will forever love it and miss it.

That was my home for the best four months of my life.

My Secret Obsession.

See these cute little faces?

They captured my heart.

I'm in love with little black babies with English accents. 

Meet Stacey. She's my favorite.

Give them a camera and they will be entertained for hours on end.

It's always fun to help out in nursery when they need it. 

I'm going to miss these kids.

Coming To An End.

I can't believe how fast time has flown by. 

This was our second to last weekend. So we had to make it count.

Borough Market Chicken Sandwich LOADED with sweet chili sauce.

My favorite food in all of London.

Stephanie is getting married. 

So for weeks we passed the Bridesmaids sign and always said we need to take a picture with it. 

Want a oversized teddy bear? Its only like £1,500 from Harrods.

Last Harrods run! 

I love these girls ohhh so much! 

We went to our last Cafe Pacifico night. 

Best Mexican food we found AND it was the only restaurant 

that we weren't actually the loudest. 

After a million and one picture after the last few months i had a hard time actually smiling for real in any picture that night. 

I'm going to miss our crazy adventures!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Full of family and LOTS of yummy food.  But this year was different. This was the first year in my whole life I've ever not been with my family for a holiday. But I wouldn't have traded this experience for anything. 

I spent it in London with my new family.

Wednesday was a busy day filled with homework and preparing for Thursday. We had a sign up sheet and everyone took turns helping to make the pies. Me, Alyssa, and Maggie went in that night and broke the bread for the stuffing.

There was a total of Twenty-three.

All home made.

Thanksgiving day!

That morning instead of the traditional turkey bowl.

We did it London style and had a football match.

I scored a goal. No big deal.

I helped cook and get things ready up until the meal which was quite the task. Dinner for 55 people. So much food!

Good old John cutting the turkey!

Real food never tasted so good after all the terrible food we get served at the centre every night.

So glad Peter and John said they would cook it.

This year I'm thankful for:

• My amazing parents who have supported me through this whole experience and made it possible.
• My brothers who I miss dearly everyday and the friendships I share with them.
• London and the things I have learned everyday about myself and the amazing world we live in.
• The opportunity to travel the world and see new things.
• The gospel and everything it brings to my life and the members of the Mitcham ward who teach me how great the church is and how it's true no matter where you go.
• My new 9 best friends from London.
• All the girls I live with and learn patience and new point of views.
• Skype to keep me in touch with my family and friends back home.
• My friends back home who keep me feeling loved from a whole other country.
• The love i have for London and my new home I have created.

This was a Thanksgiving to remember.

Stratford & Oxford.

Stratford aka Shakespeare city.

Stalk Shakespeare day.

First stop was Anne Hathaway's house

When we first heard we were going to Anne Hathaway's house we got all excited and then they added in that it was his wife. Excitement gone.

Then we walked through town to the church to see his grave.

I had to pay 50p to go in. May or may not have been worth it.

I still don't understand the whole concept of graves 

inside the church. It's weird. 

Best part was the dress up section. Fran is a drama nerd.  

We also went to Nash's house [his great grandson in law] which is where the site of Shakespeare's final house was. 

Now that was exciting. 

Birthplace.  This is his childhood home. It was actually really big.  Biggest dead persons house I've seen so far.

We ended the day going to see Measure for Measure.

It had a S&M theme so that was interesting but hilarious and half awkward. But it was really good, I enjoyed it!

We stayed in cute little B&Bs. 

So happy we didn't have to stay in another hostel.

Oxford, Christ Church College

They gave us the WHOLE day to explore the school, go to the museum, and see the very small town.

Harry Potter moment.

Christ Church is the site where they filmed the main stair scene in the first movie

AND

The dinning hall for all the movies!

It was so cool! It really is a massive room.

 I can't even imagine going to school here and having dinner in there every night.

The campus was really pretty, very small but lovely courtyard and buildings.

We spent most of the day walking around the town getting our Oxford sweats and sitting in Starbucks using the free wifi and killing time until we went to Evensong.

Evensong was so beautiful. The little boys were so talented.

I love seeing how other people worship. It fascinates me.

A quick two day trip was a perfect little get away from London and all forms of homework and stress from the sprint to the end.

13 days until I'm home!