day trips and other things.

the last couple days have been full of Buckingham Palace state room tours, paper writing, homework, adventures, and lots & lots of laughter. plus a day trip to the Isle of Wight!

There are flowers everywhere you look, here in London. And I love it.

Buckingham Palace!

We went to St. Martins in-the-feilds for a string concert! I was thoroughly disappointed. but the tickets were only 8 pounds {only} so I shouldn't have expected so much. Everyone else seemed to like it, so maybe I was just being too picky? It probably was too much to ask for a concert master to play in tune and hit mostly right notes. how dare I? sorry, that sounded sassy... they also played the Bach Double {my favorite piece I ever played in Suzuki} and I'm pretty sure Kelly and I played it better in the talent show 4 years ago... so yeah. they also played my favorite song from Pride and Prejudice. and also ruined it. sadness.

Hannah turned 20! SHE WAS ALSO CALLED TO CHILE ON HER MISSION WHOOOHOO!

we basically live in mini russia. there are two Russian embassy houses within a 3 minute walk of the center. The next street over is St. Petersburge St and the street that our neighborhood runs into is Moscow Road. It was meant to be!

studying for dayz.

Our first sunday at church! It's taken us an average of an hour and a half each way to get there, but it is so worth it! This ward seems amazing and I can't wait to get to know them more!

DAY TRIP

We swam in Queen Victoria's private beach. and walked through the Osbourne House. and saw the little playhouse they built their children {which is literally about half the size of my real house. THE KIDS HAD TOY CHINA TO PLAY WITH. no one can ever complain about me being spoiled. I was stuck playing with plastic plates and these kids had a full size play house. I demand a childhood redo. soo} {I was kidding about the childhood redo. I'm a pretty blessed person compared to most of the world}

Learning experience: a study abroad gives you such a new perspective of professors. guys, they're real people. They go swimming in the freezing cold ocean with everyone. they eat ice cream and tell us funny quotes. they tell you about their favorite apps {thanks Sis Benfell... most useful free app download ever} and they give you life advice. and I adore it. It's a weird mixture between teacher/parent/friend figure.

where's your backpack been?

Jill the donkey. new friend. super cool.

ferry ride!

Professor Benfell's quote of the day {as we were purchasing ice cream on the beach}: "Let us not rush to war as Mormon's rush to ice cream" *laughing hysterically*

Wow... these posts are getting shorter and shorter with more and more pictures. Anyways, I LOVE ENGLAND. the end. see ya later. Next will be adventures from our trip to wales//preston//liverpool.

glastonbury tor & bath.

Day three was just as eventful as the previous two days!

We first stoped at Glastonbury Tor. This was another trek. and hannah and I wore the wwrroonngg shoes {see pictures below}. It was a good time and the view at the top was incredible.

proof that this was the most epic trek of the study abroad yet.

jumping picture number... ???

yes, we made a pretty bad decision on our choice of footwear...

view from the top! I am in love with the English countryside.

Next we headed to Bath. A couple things about this place: Jane Austin lives there plus it's where the Roman Baths are {hence the name}. At first we started walking around London and kept noticing that all these people were dressed up in Jane Austin era dresses. We were pretty convinced that this must be normal and all these people were crazy. Turns out there was a 10 day Jane Austin conference in Bath {goal. in. life.} So that made sense.

Wells Cathedral! {this was actually before we got to bath but}

The Royal Crescent!

Frannie! This is the daughter of one of the professors and I love her! She is absolutely hilarious.

Costumes EVERYWHERE

I love Bath. and England.

Bath Cathedral.

ice cream + cathedrals + Ellen = good life

Roman Baths!

And that was the end of that trip! Wow, picture overload. Overall, I fell in love with England. I'm never coming home.

my future home + merlin's cave.

day two was one for the books! our first stop was St Michael's Mount. Basically it's a castle on an island. It also basically has it's own community {and up until a few years ago, it's own school} and the workers live on the island! It was amazing! Another perk... the family that still lives there have two sons in their early 20s. Convenient. hence the reason it's my future home. Forget Prince Harry. {joking about all of the above. except wanting to live at the castle. seriously the greatest views}

view from the castle!

walking out to the Mount. during high tide you have to take a boat.

*stolen from Aimee's instagram*

Next we headed to Tintagel castle. Number one thing I learned on this trip: they never told us how much we hike. yes we were warned about the walking but holy camoli we hiked hundreds of stairs {not an exaggeration} on this trip. Tintagel was the greatest place I've been on Earth. well, there's a lot of cool places, but you know what I mean. The history behind it is amazing and it was believed to be the the place of King Arthur's birth! Yep. Definitely super awesome. The views were spectacular.

look at those stairs...

the view!

Then we headed down the mountain to... MERLIN'S CAVE! yep. rumored to be merlin the {some sort of magic person but I can't actually remember}

And there you have it... day 2 was magnificent!