Weekend Adventures..

Hey guys,

Lots to tell and it’s only been 3 days! Friday we went to the British Museum for an assignment in our History class and in my Fine Arts class. We had to sketch our favorite piece and do a write up on what we liked the most. That museum is HUGE. So I decided to choose a room and go from there. It was hard, but I enjoyed the museum. I definitely need to go back there. After the museum we went to lunch at a place called Zizi’s that is pretty close to our house. Well as we are getting ready to leave, it starts raining – a normal thing in London. It was just normal rain at first, but then as we turned onto our street, the floods came. I have never been so soaked in 30 seconds as I was right then, AND I had an umbrella. I also have never laughed so hard while running in my entire life. Ah memories.

Friday night we went to Camden and it was a little sketch for me and a few of us, so we left and wandered through Leicester Square area and found a little ice cream shop and got ice cream! – You guys, I am in so much trouble…The food here isn’t very impressive, but the treats, sweets, and desserts are FANTASTIC!!! I hate it! Luckily we walk a lot and I have to walk up 5 flights of stairs multiple times a day, so I really hope that helps. I’m going to learn how to tell myself no. J

Saturday was fabulous! We went to Portobello Road and shopped at the market there. I HAVE to go back there. It was amazing. There were so many things I wanted! Haha. I did buy some awesome sunglasses with the Union Jack on the rims and I bought 3 scarves for 6 pounds. What a steal! I got a green, a blue, and a red one. I also bought the COOLEST umbrella in the world! I really just HAD to buy it. I didn’t want to regret not buying it. I got it at a store called Cath Kidston, and it’s just the epitome of a true “London umbrella”.

That night we wanted to go to Harrod’s, but we decided to make it a long walk. We walked all the way around Hyde Park (which is HUGE), because it was closed. It was probably a 3 mile walk, but we enjoyed our time just chatting away and making our way around London. We finally made it to Harrod’s….For those of you who have been to Harrod’s, you can feel my pain. We walked inside and my eyes were instantly tired. There was so much to see in just ONE room let alone the whole entire store! I can’t even begin to describe how much stuff is in that store. Mind you it was a Saturday night, in London, and it was CROWDED. Like so crowded you can barely move. Well this made the 6 of us each a little moody because 1) We were trying to find some dinner and 2) We had just walked 3 miles to get there and weren’t in the mood for dodging our way through people in that store. Too much work. So we decided to split up and my group decided to go outside of Harrod’s to find someplace to eat. We ended up in Notting Hill and went to a restaurant name “Giraffe”. It was a nice little place and had all sorts of different foods.

Sunday was a long, but enjoyable day. My ward doesn’t start until 1 so I got to sleep in a little, which was way nice, and slowly get ready for church. Our ward is called the White Chapel ward which is about 45 minutes away from where we live. There are 5 of us in the same ward. I was worried that we wouldn’t find where we were going because we had never navigated this part of the tube before. But with a map and prayer, we found it and made it to church at exactly one o’clock. Our ward is amazing. I would say about 75% of the people are from Nigeria or Ghana and the rest are from all around London. We found out that our stake (the Hyde Park stake) has 105 different nationalities and 75% of the stake are first generation in the church. Isn’t that amazing? I feel so blessed to be a part of this special stake and ward. I haven’t been called yet, but I have been “assigned” as the Primary pianist. Which will be fun, but I am NOT that good at the piano. That’s okay though! It’ll give me an opportunity to get better. I am excited. There are about 7 kids in the primary and they are all so cute! One little girl, Nayla, who’s 5 wouldn’t stop tickling me. She thought it was so funny. They all have pretty African names, so that’ll be a challenge trying to learn them, but I’m going to do it! I am excited for church and to get involved in that ward. We had a munch and mingle after church and that was a good opportunity to meet some of the members and learn about them. There was a Sister Yoke who is from Nigeria and just the sweetest woman in the world. She was dressed up in her fancy Nigerian attire and I was admiring it so much, she let me wear her headdress! (See the picture below..)

Today I have to read some stuff for my history class tomorrow, then I have to go to my Creative Writing class, and then tonight I think I will probably have to read some more. J Tomorrow night we are going to WICKED! I am so excited, even though I have seen it already. It will be fun to see it in London.

Well I’m off for today, but I will write more tomorrow! Have a great day and week!

I love you all,

Liz