London fun!

On Saturday we all had a free day, so a few of us tennis fans decided to go to Wimbledon! If you know me, you know I LOVE tennis. I love to play it, watch it...I love it all! I was super excited to go. We took the tube to Wimbledon and followed the crowds to the fields where everyone was standing in the "queue". We were then informed that we would have to wait around eight hours or so to possibly get in. I guess we chose the worst day to try to go...haha. They told us it was the busiest day of the tournament...bummer. So, we decided to get a few pictures in line, and we just enjoyed the atmosphere for a bit as we listened to this hilarious British salesman trying to sell us the official Wimbledon magazine. He had us laughing pretty hard. We all decided eight hours was a pretty large chunk of time to give away, so we decided to go another day, this Wednesday :). I think we will be pros this time around.....and I am still sooooo excited! Awesome awesome. After that we went to Portabello road and saw all of the shops there! Man, that place was sooooo crowded, and the street seriously went on forever. We didn't even get to the end of it. But it was awesome! They had this sweet street band called Ryan O'Reilly playing, street performers, music, yummy pastry shops, and this delicious looking Belgian waffles place which I will have to get sometime.

After a long morning we were all pretty tired and so we went home and tried to decide what to do next. It is seriously so hard to decide on things to do here because everyone has different ideas and there is soooo much to do! I am sure we will all get better at it though! :) In the end we decided to go to the home of this Londoner, Sir John Soane, this really rich hoarder. When he died he turned his home over to the city on the condition that they wouldn't move any of his stuff. He had all kinds of famous reliefs, statues, paintings, and things stored around his house. It was really really interesting. He had a mummy's tombs, different Egyptian reliefs and all kinds of stuff. I seriously do not know how this guy afforded all of it.


After that we wandered around the neighborhood. This was one of my favorite parts of the day. We were near the legal sector of the city, and since it was a Saturday, nobody was around. It seemed like we were the only ones walking down the street at any given time. It was sweet. We saw the Knight's Templar building, the Royal Courts, Fleet Street, Samuel Johnson's home (who wrote the English dictionary), and all kinds of cool buildings. After that we took the tube to Leicester Square (pronounced Lester square) and we got tickets to a play called "The 39 Steps". We had some time to spare before it started so we decided to get a bite at this cool little Italian restaurant. I learned that I should never get a drink when going to a restaurant here. I got water and it cost me like five pounds! Yikes. After dinner I bought a souvenir Will and Kate wedding plate..haha. I love it! We saw and participated in some cool street acts too. The play we went to was absolutely hilarious! It only had four people in it and a few of the actors played like five or six different characters. And the main actor in it totally looked like Wesley from "The Princess Bride". It was so great! I totally recommend it. After that we took the tube home and decided to stop at McDonalds. Apparently they have McFlurry flavors in Europe that they do not have in the US like Cadbury Chocolate McFlurries. YUM!

Sunday was church day. I was really excited for this! We were all split up in groups and sent to wards around London. We left pretty early but we ended up having a pretty hard time finding our way there. At one point we were taking a land train to a specific stop and when we got to our stop we all lined up at the door, expecting them to open just like the underground tube trains. Well, they didn't. We realized that we had to press a button to go out, so we did. Two of us got out of the door when it suddenly shut on the rest of the girls, haha. Luckily, each group had directions and we were able to make it there alright. Even though we got there late, we were welcomed with open arms. I absolutely LOVE my ward!! They are such kind, gracious, and strong people! It is really cool to see members that are all from so many different places: Africa, South Africa, Russia, India, New Zealand, and Scotland. They are small in number, but they are so united! I am really excited to get a calling there next week! :)

I'm here!

I am now across the water in amazing and beautiful London, and I am loving it! :) It is pretty great. The plane ride to London went really well. I rode with a few other girls in the program and we had a layover in Philadelphia, so we took advantage of the time and ate real Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches and just sat and chilled in rocking chairs in the airport. Awesome. We also were in the plane with members of the band iamwe. We keep seeing them everywhere, seriously. Apparently they will be preforming Sunday in Hyde Park with The Killers and some other bands. Cool!
From the airport we took a taxi to the center, and it is just gorgeous! I almost left my wallet in the taxi....whoops! But, I snatched it out right before he left...hallelujah! Right when we got there we got our room assignments and stashed our stuff. After that we were off to get our tube passes and walk around the neighborhood. We walked through Hyde park, Kensington gardens, and saw The Prince Albert memorial. The park and gardens are HUGE, and sooo green and gorgeous. I really wish we had parks in the US like they do here in London. Apparently 10% of the land here is parks. I thought that was pretty cool.
Funny story...the first night I was here (last night) I got food poisoning along with like eight other people here, and so I was barfing all night. Not really fun, but I got through it just fine. I was pretty determined to get better fast because we were planning on going to Westminster the next morning (Where Prince William and Kate were married among other things...haha). I felt much better this morning, and so I went, and it was AWESOME. It is so old and full of history. I kept on thinking about how many people before me had walked the same steps I was walking. There was tons of cool stuff to see there too: gothic architecture, super high vaulted ceilings, stained glass, and the tombs of Queen Elizabeth the 1st, Mary Queen of Scots, and Charles Dickens.
On the way to Westminster we stopped in Trafalgar Square and then took a walk down the Thames and past the London Eye, the Millenium Bridge, and Big Ben and the houses of parliament. It was so fun to see all of these famous sites in person! Overall, super awesome day! :D

On a side note, pictures load up SUPER slow on here, so if you want to see any, check facebook. Thanks! :)

One British phrase I learned today: "Way out" instead of saying "Exit" :)

Yay yay yay yay yayay!!!

I leave to London tomorrow!! How crazy is that!? I can hardly believe it. And I am sooooo excited! It has been pretty crazy the last few weeks. I finally finished one of the hardest classes in my major (Food Science, which I LOVED), moved out of my apartment, met my family at Zion's National Park where my van got stuck in a drain hole carved out of the side of the road and I had to be pulled out by a tractor--haha, visited my grandparents on the way home to Vegas in Arizona, and then got back just in time to have a day to unpack all my stuff from my van and then repack my bags and get everything ready for London. It has been pretty crazy, but I loved every minute of it! And it will all be soo worth it! Next time you hear from me, I will be in London! Yikes! :)

Check out this blog for a chance to win a 7-day trip to PARIS! Awesome.

http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris

Drumroll please....

So..... I got it! I received my first EVER passport in the mail yesterday. When my mom called me to inform me of this wonderful news I was super excited and pleasantly surprised!! I put off getting my passport for some reason and so I was worried it would not get here in time, it being busy season and all. Happy day...it ended up getting to me before it was scheduled to. YIPPEE!!

Exciting News....

You might consider me a nerd because I love to watch Rick Steve's Europe.


I guess I just get sucked into all of the cool places he visits. Watching him makes me feel like I am there....and who wouldn't want to be there? I have so many places I would love to visit in Europe: Paris, Vienna, Rome,and Madrid.... I mean, really. Visiting all those places would be living the dream. I have had a couple of people ask me where I would specifically go if I could travel ANYWHERE (my dream destination) and I have always said, "England." I LOVE England, and everything about it. I love Jane Austen, accents, the history, the people, the places, the food! Not only does it hold a lot of the history of the world, but it holds a lot of history from both sides of my family. My ancestors are from England. I have always wanted to visit England, and my wishing grew after my older sister was accepted to a study abroad program to London, and two of my best friends did a backpacking trip from one end of the UK to the other.

This past year I thought about it a lot. I stopped by the Study Abroad offices and collected papers on all of the England study abroad options and looked to see which one looked the best. I decided on London Study Abroad Summer 2011. I don't think I really thought I would be able to go, but it was exciting to me all the same. When I got home that day I taped the paper up in my room. Hopefully that would motivate me to get there!

Winter semester my mind took off. I somehow decided that I COULD do the study abroad, that I WOULD apply, and that it would be STUPID to at least not try. I hardly remember the application process. I just remember that I did it, almost automatically.

One early Saturday morning I received an email that said,
"Congratulations on your acceptance to BYU's Summer 2011 London SA Summer program."
I was ECSTATIC. I ran around my apartment, and screamed, and laughed, and jumped up and down. I am pretty sure my roommates thought I was crazy. Then I called the fam...and I continued to run around, and scream and laugh. It was great.

I am incredibly excited for this upcoming adventure. I am excited for everything that I will see, and learn, and all the awesome people I will meet. I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I feel so blessed and grateful that I can be a part of it all. I CAN'T WAIT! :)


AH London! I am going to see this soon! YIPPEE!!

Curried Chicken Puffs

My grandma Fish is an amazing cook. This is yet another family favorite from my her. These Chicken Puffs are absolutely delicious, and a great main dish for any meal.

Curried Chicken Puffs

Cream Puffs
1 cup water
½ cup butter or margarine
1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling
¼ cup finely chopped green pepper
¼ cup finely chopped onion
1 medium clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/3 cup chopped water chestnuts

To make cream puffs: In saucepan, combine water, butter, and salt; bring to boil. Add flour
all at once, stirring rapidly until mixture forms ball. Remove from heat; beat in eggs, one at
a time, until smooth. Drop by teaspoonfuls on un-greased cookie sheet in 50 small mounds.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until puffed, brown and dry; cool.

To make filling: In saucepan, cook green pepper and onion with garlic and curry in butter
until tender. Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients. Cut tops off cream puffs with
sharp knife. Fill each with about 1 tablespoon filling. Replace tops. Bake at 400 degrees for
10 minutes or until hot. Makes 50 appetizer cream puffs.
Elaine Fish

1 cup sifted flour
4 eggs

1 can (10 ¾ ounces) condensed
cream of mushroom soup
1 ½ cups finely chopped cooked chicken
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons chopped chutney