Sunday, June 10
- Sunday was a really fun day, but also a sad one because we had to say goodbye to everyone. It was sad saying goodbye to Isobel and all the leaders in Young Women. I hope Isobel decides to get baptized! It sounds like she's on her way, and the ward has a Facebook page so I can keep in touch with all the members that way :) It was tough saying goodbye to the ward missionaries even though we'd only known them for a few weeks. I can't imagine how hard it would be saying goodbye to everyone going home after a mission! We got so close with the members even though we weren't in the ward long. We said goodbye to this one guy in the ward who always called us the Brigham Young angels. He'd always say, "It's amazing how Brigham Young's dead, yet he can still send us angels!" He was one of our favorites :) We also got to say goodbye to the young men from the ward after church. There's only a couple young women in the ward, which is why I think the young men loved us so much haha. They're such cool guys! We had so much fun outside taking a bunch of Zoolander and gangster pictures with them and just being funny. After saying goodbye to them, we went back inside the church and ate lunch with the bishop and his wife. They made us really good cucumber sandwiches, which is totally British. They have the cutest little girls ever! It was sad saying goodbye to their family; the bishop was awesome and so nice! I'm so glad I was put in that ward and hopefully I can keep in touch with some of the members :)
- Not many people can say they got to celebrate their birthday in London, and just the fact that I was there made my birthday pretty awesome! Monday morning we had our English final that lasted about two hours, and then we had a three hour history class after that. The rest of the day was spent studying for our history final. We did take a break between the test and class to go out for Fenton's one last time, and it was hilarious because it was pouring freezing cold rain! I've never been in school for my birthday, and I've never had it pour rain either! After studying all day, Kate, Katherine, Lauren, Kayley, Kennedy and I went out that night to get Gelato Mio for my birthday, but wouldn't you know it, it was closed. Go figure! We went to get frozen yogurt at Yogurtland instead, and frozen yogurt is actually one dessert that the states do better. It was still good though! We also went to a grocery store called Sainsbury's and stocked up on treats to help get us through the long night of studying. It was still raining that night, and we were all so tired and just went crazy hyper walking around the streets in our rain jackets eating frozen yogurt. It was so much fun to just go crazy and get rid of some of the stress from finals! It was a completely different birthday than what I'm used to, but the girls made sure it was fun for me :) I love those girls!
- We took our history final Tuesday morning at 9, and oh man was it rough. It took most of us three hours to take, and during the test one of the girls threw up her arms and just went into hysterics yelling "I can't do this!" over and over. Haha! That's what we all felt like doing I'm sure. We were all cheering her on saying "C'mon Whitney you can do it!" This whole time our teacher was sitting in the next room and he didn't say anything. It's even funnier looking back on that now! It felt so good once I turned my test in. I was so happy to finally be done with school! Tuesday during the day we packed, cleaned up, and went out for last minute souvenirs. That night we went to see Henry V at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, our last play with everyone there together. It was so cool being at the Globe! It was so exciting just thinking that that was where Shakespeare himself used to have his plays. The only thing not fun about it was that we were down in the groundling area, so we had to stand for the whole three hour play. That was pretty rough, but it was a good experience! We walked past the houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and St. Paul's for the last time after the play and got to see them all lit up. St. Paul's looked so beautiful with all the lights and it really hit me then that I was leaving the next day. It made me so sad to think that I might never come back, but then I realized I'm not losing all the friends I made over the trip! I'll still be able to hang out with a bunch of them over the summer, and then I'll be able to see them at BYU in the fall. London was such an amazing experience, and I'm so glad for the friends and memories I made!
- A bunch of us had flights leaving at the same time Wednesday morning, so Nick scheduled a shuttle to take us from the center to the Heathrow airport at 6:30 am. That morning we had time to say goodbye to everyone, and it was so sad! After living with the same 40 people for 2 months you get really close! It felt like we were all a big family! After saying goodbye to everyone we took the shuttle to the airport, and had to wait a while before boarding our plane. Our plane ride was 8 1/2 hours from London into the Atlanta airport, and it was a long, long flight. I was so tired, but I couldn't fall asleep because I was so uncomfortable. I had to wear my rain boots on the plane because they wouldn't fit in by bag, so that was super annoying. The guy sitting next to me took up a lot of room, so I couldn't exactly stretch out my legs. At least I got the window seat! I watched three movies on the plane ride and they were all really good. I watched War House, which made me bawl! I was already so emotional because I was so tired, and the movie was so good! I was sitting there laughing at myself for crying at a horse movie, and the guy next to me probably thought I was so weird ha. I watched the new Mission Impossible and Singin' in the Rain too, all movies I had never seen before. After finally landing in Atlanta, I just about died walking off the plane into Georgia humidity in my Oxford sweatshirt and rain boots. We had a two hour layover there, then got back on the plane for a four hour flight into Salt Lake. I got to sleep a little on that flight, so it wasn't so bad. I woke up at 6 am that morning in London and didn't land in Utah until 2 o'clock London time, so in all it was about 19 hours of traveling. My mom and grandma were there at the airport in Salt Lake to take me home which was so nice! It was great to finally be at home again! I didn't want to go to sleep right away, cause I was afraid if I did I'd wake up in the middle of the night. So, my sister Courtney and I stayed up watching Vampire Diaries until 1 in the morning, which means I stayed awake for 26 hours straight (besides the nap on the plane). I slept through the night though, so that's good! :) Hopefully I'm not too jet-lagged today.
- I had an absolutely amazing time in London, and I'm so grateful for the time I was able to spend there. The trip made me realize to be thankful for my own home, and its made me want to find the things about Utah that are unique and fun about it. Hopefully I can find some things :)
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