CaLiFoRnIa

Right now I am in Carlsbad, California with my family. We come here every year for the 4th of July and I love it!! We stay in a condo that is right on the beach so we can be extremely lazy and all we have to do is walk down some stairs. It's amazing. Today I got really fried on my knees and my wrists. Kind of random spots, but hey at least I will have tan knees and wrists! haha We have had a lot of fun so far! Tomorrow we are going to church then to Marie Calendar's for brunch. It's the greatest tradition! This is my favorite thing we do all year!!!!

ROCK ON!

This summer has been amazing so far!! Last night we went to Seven Peaks for the $6 after 6 deal (I have to go at this time now because I spent all my money on the swimsuit I was wearing...hey at least I looked cute!) Then we came back and watched the Bachelorette. It was a great summer night. But it didn't end there. Then we went outside and it was a small thunderstorm, which was fantastic. I played lacrosse with one of my friends and then we just talked on the grass. Later we play catch with a football and played 500. It was way fun! Then a boy in our ward put his massive dj speakers outside and turned on some music. That was when everybody lost it! We had a dance party right there in the grass/sidewalk. It was probably about 10 people and it was one of the most fun and funny things I have ever done! We were all laughing so hard. After our intense dance party, we just laid in the grass and talked. The party doesn't even end there!! We finished the night off with some Rock Band. Rock Band has become sort of a ritual. Every night we want to play, but sometimes the owners don't really want us there. I love summer!! The greatest part about that whole summer night is the fact that I had been at the pool and Seven Peaks all day, so I had no make up on, my hair was sick and I was wearing red basketball shorts, a purple sports bra and a black tank top. It was amazing. Also, the other day we had a relief society cook off and it was so fun! We each had to make something and it was a competition. We felt like it was so early, but as you can see in the picture it was 11:00 in the morning. My roommate Carrie won with her homemade BBQ chicken pizza!

hey big spender...stop spending.

So recently I have developed a habit of spending money. Who knew it could be so easy? I swear London did something to my blood. Usually I am very conservative with my money and save as much as possible. This past week I have not been so frugal. It may be London or it may be because I am going through some hard stuff right now, but whatever my excuse is--the bottom line is that there really is no excuse. I bought 3 swimsuits on Friday that were really quite pricey and not to mention non-returnable. Do I have the money? Of course not. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I looked at my bank account last night. WOW! I have never seen it so low. So when we had a couple friends over last night, I was in a money mode. I brought one of the girls to my room to show her the swimsuits. She tried one on, and 5 minutes later she wrote me a check! I was so relieved. Then today I took back some jeans I bought at Nordstrom. I am feeling better about my money situation now, but it still makes me sick to think about. I hate the mall!! I also hate credit cards. Don't get me wrong, I am going to survive. I will just have to eat cereal the rest of my summer. I want to get a job, but I can't because I will only be available for 3 weeks of July. Hard life, I know. But seriously, I wish I could work. So if anybody out there knows of any opportunities available let me know!

l.o.v.e.

I seriously cannot express my love for summer. It is insane how much I love this season!!!! Friday night we hung out on the lawn of King Henry and listened to music because the weather was amazing! Yesterday I was at the pool for seriously 6 hours straight. It was awesome. Then we had another bon fire last night. It's weird because it's really not even cold outside and we are having huge fires. People are try to hide behind each other so it is less hot haha. Thursday night we went to a rodeo and it was really fun!! I love rodeos. It reminded me of Lehi Days. Good times! Today after church we had a munch n' mingle. They had grilled cheese sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches too. There were blankets set up in the grass in the shade. It was a fun time!

summer time baby!

It's finally summer!!! Things have been a little different since I got home, but it has been a lot of fun. Monday night for FHE we went to the Lehi Fairgrounds and painted everything for the upcoming rodeo. There was a BBQ after and it was really fun! Tuesday I went to the pool and got a ton of sun. That night me and my new roommate Carrie went to institute then went to our friend's house to watch the Celtics vs. Lakers game. It was fun! I like going to houses because it just feels nice to get away from gross apartments for a night. Today I got my hair done by Jenny and it's so so cute!! I needed it done so bad. Tonight we were going to our ward slip n' slide, but we got addicted to watching "So You Think You Can Dance." So we missed the slip n' slide, but we just went and played volleyball with some really hard core players. Then what do you know, some of my homeboys walk past so we hung out and went swimming. After we got a pizza from Little Caesars and ate it on the grass in front of the store. Later we went to our friends apartment and played Rock Band. I just love summer!!!!!

PARIS

So the last week of our study abroad we went to Paris. It was the most amazing city!! I loved it so much. It was very clean and felt more foreign than London. We saw all the major sites and had a ton of fun. Of course we went shopping and I bought a few things. The last night we were there was really sad. We took our blankets from the hotel and went to the grass under the Eiffel Tower and laid down and watched it light up and sparkle. After we ate a banana chocolate crepe. It was the perfect way to end the study abroad. I am going to miss seeing those girls every day. We all became extremely close. I am so thankful I was able to have this experience. It's good to be back though. Today is Father's Day! Happy Father's Day Dad!! Thanks for providing the funds for my study abroad. I love you so much!! I can't wait to see you at the beach! I would also like to say Happy Father's Day to my future husband wherever he is. He is going to be an amazing father, I already know!

PARTY HARD!

This weekend has been the BEST!!!!! We went to Hard Rock Cafe on Friday and afterwards we went to a club called Crush. It had 1,300 students and two levels of dancing! It was way fun. We got home around 4 AM. The next morning we woke up at 8 to go to the Portabello Market. Of course I bought some more things!! Every time I leave my flat I buy something. It's really ridiculous. So yesterday we shopped all day then took a nap. We had a group pizza party at 5 which was way fun! Then we came home and started packing because we leave for Paris tomorrow!! Crazy. Friday night I bet a boy named Jake at the club who was really cute and he gave me a social card that had his name, email address and phone number. It was pretty cool! So when I got home I looked him up on facebook and sent him a message asking if he remembered me and of course he did! He invited me and my friends to go to a pregame party for a big football (soccer) game that was going on. He also told me his friend was in charge of the guest list for a really posh club called Embassy and asked if we wanted to go. I told him to put our names on the list! So last night we go to this club that was SO SO NICE!! It was really amazing. It was kind of expensive to get in, but I talked with the owner and he gave it to us for half off. I can't even describe how cool the club was! We felt way underdressed because everybody was in cocktail dresses and heals, but how do you dance in that!? Then I saw Jake and he was looking FINE! Yeah we had a great time!!! The club was so nice that a famous soccer player was there and the paparazzi was taking pictures of him outside!! I asked the paparazzi man if he wanted a picture of me and Jake and he said yes and took 5 or 6! I'm going to be famous!!! haha We got home around 4:30 and were still wide awake. The sun was coming up!!! We had to wear our eye shades to make our room dark haha. It was seriously amazing!!

Proper English Day

Yesterday was great fun.  It was such a beautiful day so after class we decided to go row boats on Hyde Park.  Unfortunately the boats were under construction so we weren't able to do them, but it was still fun to walk around the park.  The parks here are HUGE!  Then we decided to walk to Buckingham Palace and take some pictures with the guards there.  Last time we went, the guards weren't on duty.  A man who worked at the museum told us they can only be on guard every other day because there are not enough for ever day because of the war.  That surprised me because I never realized how it has affected the people here too.  Anyway, we were lucky and the guards were out!  Then we really had nothing to do so we decided to go home to South Kensington and get cream tea.  Cream tea is just having tea with scones.  So as we got off the tube we ran into our teacher who is really into things like that.  She told us where to go and as we got there we could not find it at all.  We walked down Bond Street which is the most expensive shopping in town.  There was everything there.  You have to be wearing the dress code to even go inside the stores.  There were guards outside the store!  We saw a yellow diamond ring in one of the windows that was 57 carats!!!!!  WOW.  So we finally found the place and we went inside and it was the most amazing, beautiful shop ever.  We were definitely out of place in our jeans and dirty hair.  The cream tea was about 35 pounds a person ($70 american dollars!) so we decided to go somewhere else.  It was still fun to see the old ladies eating their cream tea.  Then we ran into a little cafe that had a pot of tea and a slice of cake for 2.75 so we decided to do that!  I got a chocolate cresant that was amazing.  I hate tea.  Later that night we went to the play "Twelfth Night."  It was in Regents Park in the open air theater and it was soooo cool!!  It was really fun.  Right at intermission I started noticing that my bum was feeling really wet, so I asked my friend if hers was too and she said no.  Then I was like "did I pee my pants and not realize it!?"  I was getting really nervous because like my whole bum was wet!!!!  So I sat up and my jeans were soaked, along with the padding on my chair haha.  And mine was the only one!!  Nobody else was wet, so it really did look like I peed my pants.  Then my friend lifted up the cushion on my chair and there was a huge puddle of water under it.  Only on my chair.  It was so random and the rest of the night I had soaking wet jeans and underwear, which made the cold even colder.  It was still fun though!  Today was our last day of class.  It's kind of a bitter sweet feeling that this is all coming to an end, but I would say its about 75% sweet and 25% bitter.

lame

Lame.  Today and yesterday have been really lame.  Yesterday we gave our presentation with the little fashion show and it went really well!  We got 100%.  Afterwards we went to Parliment and saw a session.  It was neat.  I felt sick so I just went home and did nothing.  I wrote the first part of my paper, but I really was just lazy because I was feeling so sick.  That night I watched the Devil Wears Prada, but fell asleep to it.  This morning we had class.  Then we went to a Lunchbox Play.  We saw "The Merchant of Venice."  It was only 45 minutes long, but I still fell asleep for 10 minutes of it.  Haha I remind myself of my mom.  I can't stay awake during anything!  I then came home and made myself a pizza and finished my movie.  Then I took a nap and woke up and wrote my entire paper.  It took forever and it was really hard because it was on Shakespeare.  I don't like him.  Since then I have been working on my London video that I am making.  It's going to be so cool!!  It's already 20 minutes long.  I am hungry now so I am going to make scrambled eggs.  bye.

WOAH!

It's been way too long.  The thought of how much updating I had to do to my blog was making me sick.  Here it goes.  Last Thursday we went to see a production of King Lear at the Globe Theater during the day.  Cool right?  Yeah except for the fact that we had to STAND for the entire 3 hour production IN THE RAIN!!!!  and our teachers and their children were seated nicely in expensive seats.  I wanted to shoot myself.  I just left halfway through because I was freezing and it was the worst day ever.  The next morning we left to go to the Roman Baths and Stonehenge.  They were both really cool, but not what I was expecting.  That night we stayed in another bed and breakfast and when a lot of my friends went out clubbing, I decided to stay in.  I just got in bed and watched t.v.  It was sooooo nice!!!  I have not watched t.v. in the longest time and the break from the world was great!!!  That night we got back to London and we went to the Flogging Molly concert!!  It was so so so cool!!  It was really the craziest thing I have ever been too in my entire life but I loved every second!!!!  I even got to meet one of the guys from the band afterwards!  Sunday we went to Trafalgar Square and watched Romeo and Juliet the ballet put on by the big London production company.  It was shown on a huge screen and it was live!!!  There were thousands of people in the square watching it.  It was so fun to be a part of it!  This morning I had a presentation for my class and we did a fashion show and talked about the differences between fashion in the US and in London.  It went really well!  We had a runway with lights and sheets.  It was fun.  Now I am sick in bed.  Not fun.