Sorry I have been so bad at posting about Thanksgiving break... Brussels and Amsterdam was amazing! Unfortunately I did not run into Elder Brockbank or Elder Osmond in Belgium, but I did manage to eat 4 chocolate-covered waffles in one day.

Favorite part? Walking through Amsterdam along the canals at night trying to find our hostel. You can call me Lewis and Clark if you want, because I definitely found it.

The directions went something like this: "turn right out of the train station, take a left at the third canal, walk along the river until you hit Pakinstringracht street, then turn right at the 5th bridge onto Bloemstraat and the hostel should be on your left."

Crystal clear right? haha

There are thousands of bikes everywhere and the bridges were all lit up, and I was listening to Jay-Z on my iPod, could life get any better?

I suppose I would have been alright with my camera not getting stolen in the Brussels train station.

And I probably would have been fine with our train not being delayed for two hours because of a fire.

But actually, looking back, those are the things that make the best memories! And whoever has my camera can enjoy my memories too.

I loved the girls I travelled with, I love that we stay up til three chatting even though we ran ourselves into the ground all day, I love that we ate steak for Thanksgiving in Brussels, and that when we walked out of the restaurant it was snowing.

That was one Thanksgiving that will be hard to top :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's a day early, but I am leaving for Belgium this afternoon with 6 other girls and will be spending Thanksgiving in Brussels!

So that means for Thanksgiving dinner I will be having Belgium waffles in Belgium :)

On Friday we're traveling to Amsterdam where we're going to tour Anne Frank's house and explore the city!

See you on Saturday!

..... I have no idea. Probably nothing. Except that they all figured into my day today.

First stop of the day:

The Mosque

We got to tour an Islamic mosque! But if you want to go inside one, you can't show your hair, long sleeves are mandatory, and no tight clothes... PROBLEM.

Pants I brought to London: skinny jeans, jeggings, and leggings... awesome.

So I wore a long coat and hoped for the best :)

Second stop of the day:

ABBEY ROAD!

Do I even need to say anything more?

Oh, except that it is an actual road that is still used... a lot... so we couldn't get the greatest picture haha.

Third Stop:

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland!

It is AWESOME! It is a full on carnival with a ferris wheel and other rides, vendors selling amazing pastries and cadbury hot chocolate, and booths full of homemade crafts!

Word to the wise: don't sample the apple cider, on account of there being alcohol in cider over here. (We learned this the hard way... haha)

We have been feeling rather deprived of sports (the one and only drawback of living in England is that we missed football season completely) so to make up for it we decided go see a rugby match!

England vs. Samoa. SO SWEET!

But it was quite the ordeal to get there, let me just take you through it:

• took the tube to Putney Bridge
• walked to the train station, and crammed onto a severely overcrowded train with 60,000 fans who were also making their way to the Twickenham stadium.
• found a man scalping tickets
• avoided the swarms of policemen and covertly completed a transaction for 6 tickets
• entered the stadium (that was big enough to be considered a small city) and attempted to find our seats
• finally asked someone for directions and a map
• found our seats
• WE WERE SITTING ON THE THIRD ROW!

And here are some of my favorite parts of the game (besides the actual game itself):

• I could practically see the sweat on the players' foreheads, it was awesome.
• We made friends with the people around us that have had their same seats for like 20 years
• They were really nice and explained all the rules and positions to us
• Participated in the biggest wave of my life (60,000+ people in the stadium and it seemed like every single one was in on it)
• Watching the Samoan players do the haka before the game
• Oh yeah, ENGLAND WON!! woohoo!

I love rugby now!!

Actually I love college towns.

For example, I love Provo: I grew up there, I go to school there, I love when all the students come back into town, and I have a problem with people that attend BYU and rant about how lame Provo is... (you can leave.. no one is forcing you to stay...)

But that being said, CAMBRIDGE IS AWESOME!!

I mean look at their dorms:

How do I know those are their dorms? Because we accidently walked into one of them... Awkward? Yes.

We also went "punting!"

This very nice future-Cambridge student pushed us up and down the river that winds past all the colleges and told us funny stories about pranks past Cambridge students have pulled. And informed us of fun facts like how Prince Charles had the lowest grades of any student ever admitted into Cambridge... that's embarrassing haha.

Posting up on a bridge at St. John's College

Me and Jord! ...... and Morgan.....?

On a side note, I think congratulations are in order for Prince William and his new fiancee Kate! The whole country is in an uproar -- the entire newspaper yesterday was about their story. Did you know he gave her Princess Di's engagement ring? WOW! They're planning on marrying spring/summer next year and I'm thinking that is the perfect time for a London reunion tour :)

Want to know something great? In London, Christmas is full-blown celebrated for 2 months on account of Thanksgiving not being a holiday over here.

So that means Christmas hymns in church, Oxford and Regents street exploding with twinkling lights, Christmas displays in all the department store windows, and way too much shopping... or not enough.. yeah, lets go with not enough :)

These pictures are from the Harrods Christmas parade!

They were handing out FREE HARRODS CANDY, which we were way too excited about. But normally they charge you an arm and a leg and your first-born child for a little package of chocolate, so our extreme exhilaration wasn't entirely uncalled for. haha.

Best part of the parade? There was FAKE SNOW blowing off the roof of Harrods for like two hours!

Father Christmas was welcomed to the store (but don't think you'll get a chance to sit on his lap... tickets have been sold out for 2 months already!)

Morgan and I were way pumped about the fake snow

Nothing says Christmas like dancing neon mermaids

Harry Potter 7 World Premier in London.

Leicster square was transformed with dozens of posters, 2 HUGE screens re-playing the movie trailer for 3 hours straight, the entire square was covered in red carpet.

Then at 5:15 P.M. the stars arrived. And I ended up being within 2-3 feet of all of them.

My life is complete.

Rupert Grint was the first AND WE MADE EYE CONTACT AND HE GAVE ME AN EYEBROW RAISE.

Bonnie Wright (Ginny) was next, a) she's much prettier in person, and b) she totally grabbed my hand.

Mr Weasley:

I talked to Dean Thomas about his vest and got his autograph!!

Lucius Malfoy. It definitely took me like 30 seconds to recognize who he was without his long blonde hair haha but I got his autograph!

TOM FELTON. aka Draco Malfoy. He is AMAZING!!!! And yes, I have his autograph as well. And we had a conversation/he flirted with me and Meegan. Dream = fulfillled.

Daniel Radcliffe getting interviewed!!

Luna Lovegood with BROWN HAIR?? Also, her voice in real life sounds EXACTLY like it does in the movie!

FRED AND GEORGE. I love them!!!!

EMMA WATSON. Alright, I was always a fan of her haircut, and after seeing her last night I decided she is a goddess. She is BEAUTIFUL. And she was so cute and excited!

J.K. Rowling. She basically made our childhood magical. AND I GOT HER AUTOGRAPH!!

Bellatrix Lestrange. She is AWESOME. How sweet is her outfit?!

Neville Longbottom!! Got his Autograph!!

17 hours of waiting outside in the rain, wind, and cold.

8 layers of clothing including 2 shirts, 3 jackets, 1 coat, leggings+jeans, 2 pairs of socks. headband+hat, gloves, and rainboots. Garbage bags transformed into dementor hoods.

Ate nothing but ritz crackers and peanut m&m's for those 17 hours.

All for Harry.

BEST DAY OF MY LIFE.

So today was a really good day.

I woke up and set out breakfast (I'm on kitchen crew this week), attended class, went to The National Gallery to write about Van Gogh, and on my way home ran into

Prince Charles and Camilla on their way to a WWI memorial concert.

Typical day in London. haha not.

Yesterday we went for a Sunday jaunt and found the house that they used in The Parent Trap for Elizabeth James' home!

So basically (imagine the voice)

You may call me Aunt Vickie!

Doing the handshake

Once upon a time there were 10 girls who got free tickets to a fashion show!

They got all dressed up and went down to the pier.

Why did they go to a pier?

Because the fashion show was on a boat!

They met lots of fun people, ate delicious desserts, and observed some models that really didn't know what they were doing haha.

Then the top of the boat turned into the best dance party I have ever been to in my life!

The DJ deserves a medal for how perfect his song choices were.

For 2 hours we were sailing up and down the Thames dancing our hearts out. Best part of the night? It started raining.

So yes, we had a dance party, on the Thames, in the rain.

We could barely walk home because our feet hurt so badly, definitely damaged our ear drums, and were almost delirious with happiness.

It was a fairytale.

Cheers!

 


This girl had a bit too much to drink... hahaha