Ireland

 This past weekend has been one of my favorites while studying abroad. We took a three day trip up to Ireland and it was such a cool experience. We took off right after class on thursday and took so many different modes of transportations. Within one day we took a shuttle, plane, taxi, bus, and train. Our flight took off from the Luton airport and landed in Dublin. From there we got on a train and rode the width of the country to the west coast. Our final destination was Galway. It was beautiful! There were cows, sheep, and horses everywhere, it was fantastic. I'm not gonna lie, I was feeling a little bit clausterphobic being in London because it was so much city around me so it was really nice to go to a place where you look for miles in every direction. We stayed at a bed and breakfast two miles outside of the town center that was owned by a great Irish couple. They were so nice to us, at one point we were standing in the rain waiting for the bus and Dez (the husband) saw us and felt sorry for us and drove us into to town. We spent a lot of our time on Quay (pronounced "key") street, pictured above. It was a lot of fun, there were a lot of pubs and stores to explore. The street was lined with musicians playing a variety of instruments. We learned later that Galway is the place for musicians in Ireland.

The Cliffs of Moher

Friday morning we woke up and went on a bus tour through the countryside. The highlight of the tour were the Cliffs of Moher. (where they filmed the Cliffs of Insanity scene in Princess Bride).  Being there was one of the coolest things I have ever done. They continued on forever and I just wanted to stay there for hours walking along the edge of the cliff. Every step I took changed the way that they looked. It was awe inspiring to feel like you were standing at the end of the world. I loved it!

Saturday morning we got back on the train and headed back to London. It was a successful weekend! I loved having the chance to go to Ireland.

Fires, Skype, and Such

I have some pictures and stuff that I want to show. I don't have much to say, this past weekend the exhaustion hit and I haven't done much. I relaxed a lot but it was a good kind of relaxing where I'm getting ready to enjoy everything I can. Today I went to class where my teachers once again taught a lesson that really impacted me, it was great! then we went and bought The Amazing Spider-man Tickets that we went to tonight. From there I went to H&M looking for a rain jacket, I didn't find one, but I did find a cute shirt that I'm excited to wear :) When I got home I finished Life of Pi, something that I am proud of. I spent the remainder of the afternoon on Skype with Cameron :) it was awesome.  

They put up the Olympic rings on the Tower Bridge a month before the Opening Ceremonies. I wanted to see them so bad, so I talked my friends into walking over there with me.  

This is one of my favorite pictures. I took it while sitting on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a little bit cold and rainy but I didn't mind because the view was worth it. 

This past week was a bad week for fires in Utah. Last friday I got on facebook to see my cousins posting on my mom's wall asking about the fire in Herriman, which is where my parents live. The next day there were posts about them being evacuated. I had a little bit of a rough time waiting for news (the internet being my only form of communication) about if my family was safe and if I still had a house. Finally I got the response that they were safe, they had to be evacuated but on sunday morning they were allowed back home. This picture was posted a little while later. The circled house is the one my parents live in. The fire came up to our backyard and then stopped. We are so blessed. 

Observations

While wandering around London this past week I have made a couple of observations that I would like to share.

1. London is incredibly diverse, I have never been to a place with so many people from so many different countries speaking other languages! It's been refreshing to get out of Utah
2. At almost every intersection, there is paint on the road telling you which direction to look for cars before you cross. This is so helpful for those of us who are not used to cars driving on the left side of the road.
3. When words ending in S are possessive they still put an apostrophe S. (ex: James's)
4. Europeans are quiet
5. Asians take a lot of pictures (even during musicals when it is "forbidden" haha)
6. People own really nice cars
7. When parking on the street, you can park any direction you want
8. Police sirens are REALLY loud, and the cars are neon yellow and green
9. Almost everyone smokes. The smoke isn't as stinky as in the US but it still gets hard to breathe sometimes
10. The toilets do not always flush
11. On the street people will walk straight at you until you move out of their way. It's like a game of chicken.
12. When people run into you they say, "so sorry!" I'm starting to pick up on it (I tend to run into people quite a bit)
13. They sell crispy m&m's!
14. There are a lot of dogs! Everywhere. Very pretty, groomed, well behaved dogs.


I'm sure I'll come up with more and post them later, but right now I actually need to do some homework. We gotta study some time on this "study" abroad. :)

Week 1 in London

Well I've officially been in London, well, almost a full week. Tomorrow morning it'll be a week. It has been an amazing week, I am so excited to be able to get another 5 weeks of this beautiful city and great people. I'll just give a brief overview of what I have been up to.

One night after a movie, we found Big Ben. We were very excited :) It was announced today that the clock is going to be renamed after the Queen. And it's real name isn't even Big Ben in the first place, what?!

 We ride the Tube a lot. We're becoming little experts at navigating the city, which always makes me feel cool.

Yesterday we went to the Tower of London. It was really cool to be at an old castle in the middle of modern London. It was also quite warm for the first time so I was happy.

This is Albert. He is a huge statue in Hyde Park right across the street from our flat. We see him basically every day. I have a lot of pictures of Albert.

I went and saw Wicked tonight and it was the best thing I have ever seen! I was so happy! It was worth every pound :) I want to see it again!

My roommates (Cassie and Laura on the ends), Emily, and I after our tour of the British Film Institute. I don't think this skyline will ever get old to me :)

No Responsibilities

I love being at this point in my life. It is so much fun. I'm getting ready to go into my senior year of college... (WHAT!) and I have a job, an amazing group of friends, no classes, and lots of friends getting married. So this past weekend my friends and I took a road trip down to St. George on Saturday to go to some friends' wedding reception. It was awesome. I loved being able to drop everything just to drive 4 hours one way for the sole reason of seeing some friends on their wedding day. I like being able to take advantage of this lack of responsibilities we have right now to just drop everything and go. I know that some day, a day that is gradually approaching, I will have obligations to others. Obligations that are more important that what I want to do at the moment. I love being able to have these spontaneous road trips and experiences like it so that when I do have to be more responsible I won't feel like I am missing out on things.

 CJ and Katie Neser. These two looked so ridiculously happy, it made me a little jealous :) Everyone is happy on their wedding day, but they are one of those powerhouse couples that makes you feel that happiness when you look at them. It makes you think, wow I want something like that someday.

our group that drove down, switched up cars, and drove back. So much fun :)

Their send off, I love these lanterns

I seriously love these girls! They are both going on missions this summer and I'm going to miss them terribly

Something to Smile About

Today was one of those days when I had to look for things to smile about just to keep me going. It was a rough day to get through. You'd think that it was going to be a good day considering I took my last final this morning but I woke up sad. I didn't get much sleep last night and I didn't get any studying done either. Then on my way to my final I felt the need to do something that just made me more sad, it might have been a little bit dramatic to do, but I felt like it was necessary. Then I walked to my final, on the way it started to rain. I got my test... the first question was about something that I had no idea what it meant. There was a concept in another language that we were supposed to talk about, I didn't even know what language it was. That combined with everything else almost made me burst into tears right there. but I didn't. that would have been embarrassing. I ended up guessing what language it was and the deducing what it meant. I found out later that I was right, luckily, it was German. From that final I went to go help my class finish a movie that we've been working on. The sound guy never showed up or even contacted us, so we didn't get to finish that. In all, I was just zoned out today. On my way home I called Chloe and she happened to be home. I haven't seen her in a few weeks so I went over there. That's when my day turned around.

Chloe is one of the greatest people I know and the best friend a person could have. She was busy writing a paper but when she realized that I needed help she stopped and gave me a huge hug. From there I started finding things to smile about. The little things that could get me through the rest of today and probably the next little bit while I adjust to my new normal.

I have amazing friends like Chloe and her roommates.
We went to the corner store and bought a bunch of candy, Chloe's suggestion
I leave for London exactly 2 months from today. (I wish it were sooner though)
I got my new study abroad backpack today, I quite like it. I've had my other backpack since I was 17.
People shared their pizza with me today
I got a high score on my phone game that I have been trying to play recently
My teacher wrote a really complimentary note in my class binder before he handed it back
only one essay stands between me and the end of the semester
I get paid tomorrow
My little sister called me today and we got to talk for a while
Despite everything, through the sadness, I still feel peace and I am mostly thankful for that

Hey there!

I have a 10 page paper due  on thursday, so naturally I'm going to write a blog :)

This past weekend was one of the craziest weekends ever! We were filming the capstone project that I've been working on for the past semester. I was the Art Director, but that was kind of just a title because I was basically just an art crew member. EXCEPT, for when I had to step up and be the leader... that sufficiently freaked me out. Let me start at the beginning.

We were filming up at the salt flats so we had to leave early so that we could have every minute of sunlight to film. We left at 5:00 am... this was not easy for me but at least I got some sleep the night before unlike some poor people on the crew. One thing that I've found that I enjoy about being up early is sunrises. oh my goodness. The sunsets in Utah are pretty disappointing but the sunrise I saw on Friday was stunning.

The salt flats look awesome. Just flat white ground almost as far as you can see. We got busy and started setting up our set. The set was about a quarter mile away from the cars, which started the heavy lifting. We carried out all of our supplies (which we found out later weighed in total about 1.5 tons!) and got ready to film. We mostly stayed out of the way of the camera so we had a lot of time to take fun artsy pictures. It was pretty easy with an environment like the salt flats with such foreign broken objects such as a park bench or computers.

Then things started getting crazy. The wind blew the entire time, which starts to wear you out pretty fast. Then the director didn't really like what we were planning to do so we had to improvise. At 2, the production designer had to leave so I was left in charge...! All of a sudden people expected me to know exactly what needed to be done and start directing people to get to that goal. After a few flustering minutes I started doing my job, and it was awesome! I felt so cool. And I was so proud of the finished product. Then there was a moment when I thought that everything we had worked for was done. THE SALT FLATS FLOODED! One second I was looking at a pile of books trying to make sure everything looked right and the next I was standing in a puddle of water. From that moment the water came fast! In no time I was standing in ankle deep salt water. We were scrambling around trying to get the equipment out of the water. Salt water stings, a lot, and dries out your skin like crazy, just in case you were wondering. The last shot was planned at sunset, so this is what it ended up looking like. Despite all of the trouble it caused, the water looks awesome, doesn't it?!

We wrapped after dark, so we got to carry everything the quarter mile back through the water in the dark. I felt bad for putting the entire crew through that. We were soaked and wind blown and covered in salt but it ended up looking so amazing that it was so worth it! It's a project that I am so proud of. I worked so hard. In total, I was going from 5:00am-midnight on Friday. Then I got to get up Saturday morning and film again, but it was much more low key then.

my salt covered shoes and
pants that were so covered they were almost standing up on their own.

I have a cool major. :)

And here is another song that is a lot of fun to listen to, enjoy!