my metric system

thankful for...

I'm thankful that I was able to pay BYU for this study abroad already. It's been hovering over me since January on my financial center. And I saw it every day over the summer when I was checking to see if financial aid would ever go through. I like reading, "You have no outstanding charges at this time" when I sign in. That doesn't mean that I'm off the hook. I still owe $5,637 to people and in loans, but I'm thankful that I'm here and no one is getting after me for not paying my fee.

tender mercy...

I've had terrible luck with pens the past couple weeks. I brought 2 with me, lost one, the other ran out of ink. I went to every store and no one sold pens. Not even the books store, which I thought would be a winner. I finally went to an art supply store and bought a pen for 3 pounds. Way too much. That one broke when I used it to try and get toilet paper out of this wacky machine in our last hostel. I was still using the little tube of ink from the inside of that pen though for a while, which didn't really work. The night before last I went to Tesco and bought a 6 pack for 1 pound! And they work great! ... It's pretty important to have a pen when like 80% of your grade for the whole semester is based on your journal.

made me laugh...

Blaming everything wrong in my life on the metric system and pound conversion. This glue that I bought said "Dries Instantly," but obviously instantly means 30.48 hours in the UK. Peter said I need to spend 9 hours making art each week, but I'm interpreting that as US hours since it's 9 hours in Provo. I've been wondering why I feel so overwhelmed and I realized it's because I should only be doing 5.625 hours per week. It's a little backwards but I'm 94% sure I'm right about these numbers. I'm working on a new conversion chart now.

I've learned...

• There are Way Out signs instead of Exit signs.
• It can be 60 degrees outside and 110 in the tube.
• Road signs rarely exist.
• The White Van Man is out to kill.
• Look right first when crossing the street.
• Stand to the right on the escalators unless you're running up the stairs.
• Their coins are heavier and used more often. The 2 pound coin is my favorite thing.
• I'm either a good bargainer or a liar. Either way I saved 3 pounds on my watch.
• Nothing is cheap in Notting Hill. Whether the sign says Sale or not.
• Cheese is a big deal. It's all over the place.
• No one talks on the tube. I literally saw people playing charades the other day instead of just whispering to each other.
• There is no such thing as too much PDA in Europe. I have seen many hands up shirts.
• If you don't go through the self check out at the grocery store as speedy as possible the attendant will walk over and hover over your shoulder to make you nervous and speed you up.
  
• Everyone here loves animals because they are hardly seen. Stray cats always have crowds of people around them.
• Cookies aren't good here. The best ones are called Digestives. Which says a lot.
• Nothing is open past 11, which isn't normal for a big city. Come on London.
• Being in an elevator at the tube station with 30 other people is my least favorite thing.
• The candy bar wrappers don't give you a little summary under the name of what's in there. It's always a surprise.

First Day in Europe

thankful for...

I'm thankful for the cute old man that took me to my connecting flight terminal in Houston. He was headed to Guatemala and made sure that I was in the right spot before he went to get lunch.

tender mercy...

Xanax. I had the most relaxing, peaceful flight because of Xanax. I took two and was out like a light for my first flight. On my second flight I just stared at the movie screen. I watched Lincoln Lawyer and Backup Plan and some 30 Rock, while drinking Ginger Ale. I was even brave enough to unhook my seat belt to go to the bathroom.

When we got to the Centre I was super hot and sweaty from lugging my suitcase around. The London airport was a nightmare. I got off. Found a couple other girls. Got my suitcase. Easy peasy. Then didn't know how to get to the center. I got 50 pounds out of the atm (which is $82), when I only needed 10 pounds. I went to buy my Oyster card and couldn't tell them why I needed it or where I was going. 2 employees were trying to help me and finally another student just told them what I needed. Then I basically ran through the gate. It didn't open. I hadn't swiped the card I had just made a big deal to buy. I know the girls thought I was an idiot. Then there weren't elevators, so I had to carry my 50 lb suitcase, my 40 lb carry on and my 20 lb backpack up 2 flights of stairs. It wasn't fun.

We got to the Centre and unpacked. Then went on a 4 mile walk through lots of parks, to Buckingham Palace, and to see Big Ben. Then rode a double decker bus home. The red ones. I rode on the top.

zucchini bread

I made chocolate chip zucchini bread out of the zucchini that I grew in my garden! It was humongous. And the best part is that it surprised me. I didn't know anything was growing and one day I looked under one of those huge zucchini leaves and there it was! I measured it at 22 inches, but I like referring to it as my 2 foot zucchini. I made 2 batches of bread and had 2 bags left over that I put in the freezer!

family pictures

tender mercy...

Today I went shopping with my mom for an outfit for her to wear to our family pictures. We found her a super cute shirt and cardigan right in the nick of time.

thankful for...

I'm thankful that when I was walking around the house without my glasses on this morning, I noticed a dark spot on our dark carpet and decided to check it out instead of walking over it with my bare feet. And just to be clear, when I don't have my glasses on everything that's more than 2 feet away from my face is blurry, so the fact that I even noticed a spot is saying something. It was a spider. One of those huge, brown, hairy ones. I'm thankful that it didn't grow. For some reason I always expect them to when they're already big and scary. I'm thankful that there was a clear cup nearby that I could put over it and a screwdriver to weigh down the cup so he couldn't walk off with it. The clear cup is nice because I can check in on him to make sure he hasn't escaped (because obviously it would run straight inside my bed). However, I am not thankful that no one has volunteered to release this thing into the wild or kill it for me. I have to walk in a big U when I go in the basement to avoid accidentally knocking my trap over and having it jump on my leg... Otherwise that cup is going to be there until December 9th when I get back and have convinced myself it's safe.

made me laugh...

While we were taking family pictures today, we were trying to get baby Lola to smile. Rachel told us she likes the song "When you're happy and you know it." Immediately Mom and Sarah started singing at the same time. Baby started laughing and gave us some really cute pictures. Later the photographer sang a solo when taking a picture of our whole family to get her to smile again. It made all of us laugh, not just the baby.

I learned...

I learned that butterflies have tongues. Big, long ones that curl up when they're just relaxing and uncurl when they're sitting on my hand licking my ring.

When life hands you lemons...

I just want to say that I love my new background and I want everyone to love it as much as I do. I know it's one of the basic ones from blogger....but it's perfect. One time in high school I was at Grey Whale and saw a CD (maybe a sticker?) that said "When life hands you lemons, paint that shit gold." When I took Living Prophets they handed out a questionnaire on the first day of class. Everyday when we got to class the professor would read someones answers, we'd guess who the person was, and they'd say the opening prayer. I wrote this as my answer for "Favorite Quote". Needless to say, I never had to say the opening prayer.

I really did find it inspiring though. I still do. Maybe because I like painting. And I like gold things.

Gardening

After digging out grass, picking out rocks, assisting my dad while he built a box, finding dirt and peat moss, collecting bricks, unloading and arranging bricks, graphing out the space, hanging wire, planting seeds, making my plants name tags out of spoons, weeding, killing around 50 snails, and getting eaten by mosquitoes on multiple occasions... I've grown THIS.


I pulled that longer carrot and almost died; I was so proud. It's only like 4 inches. My lettuce, peppers and cilantro didn't make it, along with the marigolds (that were supposed to attract praying mantises to eat the grasshoppers). I did everything I could. I even read books before starting. I followed the directions on the back of the seed packages exactly. I went to a free gardening class on campus between classes one day. I sprinkled snail killer. If I'm lucky I'll get a zucchini before London. I can't help wondering if gardening is really worth it.

Those huge plants are the tomatoes we bought out of desperation. My beans are growing but haven't produced a single bean. The garden looks beautiful though. Maybe I shouldn't have treated it like an art project.