Late Night + Long Day = Problem

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT:

• "I won the award for most boyfriends...better than Best Reader or Most Improved"
• "He totally just oochie-cooed you"
• "I feel bad for any animal that ever came into our house
• "British chocolate really turns me on"..."I hate to break it to you, Anna, but anything after 9pm turns you on"
  

As everyone else in the flat had left for a night on the town, Daytona, Big Briggs, and I sat around the table in the Common Room having fun discussions and showing pictures. Somehow we got on the topic of their boyfriends and downhill we went. The conversation went like this (including photos and stories): London adventures - summer fun - Hawaii trips - making out. How you ask...had to be there. Girl 1 talked about her boyfriend. Girl 2, all the guys she's kissed. Girl 1, how many? Girl 2, let me count. Girl 1, 14. Girl 2, 16 and counting. Girl 1, let's compare locations because I've got you beat - roof, barn, stairway... Girl 2, elevators are a favorite. (WOW!! It was quite an eventful evening. We have officially adopted the term "ish") DISCLAIMER: These girls are not what you may be thinking. They're amazing.

National Portrait Gallery

Today Dayton and I wandered around London and found the National Portrait Gallery. Inside was a treasure trove of amazing pictures of amazing people. We spent about two hours walking through halls and halls of floor to ceiling history. There were Tudors, Stuarts, Politicians, Royalty, Musicians, Astronomers, Poets/Writers, etc. Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, Darwin, Tennyson, Henry VIII, etc. Then, we approached the modern art. I was expecting blotches of paint, bundles of straws, balloons tied together, and other bizarre pieces of art. I was wrong! We found black and white photographs, sketches, and paintings of famous modern figures - Princess Diana, Paul McCartney, Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart, Lily Allen, Michael Frayn, etc. And they were cool! My favorite was a collection of pictures about Saint Fabiola. The two rooms were filled wall to wall with different renditions of the same picture of a woman with a red shawl. There was needlepoint, sketches, oil on canvas, photographs, beans glued on, mosaics, and a whole bunch of paintings each with their own personality for this Saint. It was truly stunning!! We weren't allowed to take pictures in the gallery so I found a small portion of it online.

No Dried Figs!!

You read me right - no Dates. We're not allowed to date in or out of the program. (I'd like to see Ruthie Baby go through these weeks without a single date. It'd be tricky because she's just so fabulous.) There are only 3 guys in this program so the odds aren't so great so the only real testosterone we get to interact with is at Institute. Too bad that now we know everyone is off limits. Sorry girls, no foreign fling or gorgeous English man to bring home.

Archuleta in London - for Ruthie Baby

One of the girls in the program sat in front to David Archuleta at church on Sunday. She didn't realize it until the testimonies when she turned around to listen to someone. SURPRISE!!

Chandlers in Town

The Chandler crew stopped in London and invited me to come spend some time with them. Off we went to Westminster Abbey, Churchill Museum/War Rooms, and the National Gallery. It was really nice to spend some time with familiar faces and get away from the sometimes crazy hectic group. I really enjoyed the Churchill Museum because it had to do with World War II and had a lot of interesting and interactive displays and an audio tour which was really interesting. The National Gallery was fantastic and I think I've found my favorite artist - Vermeer. There was sooo much there to see that you really could only skim the surface of the surface in an hour.

Church Excursion

We were assigned to local Wards/Branches in an around London. My small group was assigned to the London North branch. Our journey was predicted to be 1 1/2hrs, well today, it took 2hrs both ways. We got to the little town without a hitch, but then didn't realize that the bus only came every so often instead of regularly and we just missed the bus because our group was going a little slow. We looked and saw that the next bus wasn't due till 10...the exact time church was to start (so we had 25 min till church started). Having the map on hand, we decided that walking would be quicker as the church building was only a 5 min bus ride (about a 10 min walk). Oh how wrong we were - 50 min later we arrived; just in time to take the sacrament. The branch members is AMAZING!!!!! I was asked to play the piano in Primary and help out with the teaching. By the end of the hour I was needed, I had beautiful little shadows clinging to me. Relief society was equally fantastic. I can't wait to be with them again next week. The trip home took 2hrs only because it was a Bank Holiday weekend and some of the lines were closed. NO GOOD!!! Next week we'll be more prepared and know where we're going.