Right Now

I should be studying for Accounting, or Calculus. Tough call...turns out I want to do neither and would rather be blogging or doing many things which include

being here(back in London..I miss it!)

watching thisor being with him!

Fall Is My Favorite

There's only one or two months of the year I don't like: February and March. The only thing good in February is Valentine's day, but that holiday's always up in the air for me so I can't even say that's a good thing about February. March is cold and uneventful. I really love Spring, Summer and especially....FALL! It's my favorite...and I'm in Provo where Fall is beautiful so life is good. I love the weather. High 60's..perfect. Love all the activities; costume parties, pumpkin carving, haunted houses, scary movies. It's great. Slowly, but surely winter is creeping up on us. Luckily with winter comes CHRISTMAS...and my birthday so that makes me happy. But Provo is just SO cold in Winter.
Anyway tonight I get to go to one of my favorite Utah activities...the Haunted Forest. Last year I went and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Including being baptized. Okay, that's a stretch.

Happy Fall To All! Enjoy it while it lasts, wherever you are.

Real Life Sets In

So I've been home from London for a little over a month now. Sorry, I still haven't gotten any better at blogging. Maybe jordanlawler.blogspot.com won't suffer so much in the states. We'll see.

Anyway, the end of the summer was so fun. I got to go to Lake Powell with Britton and his family which was so fun. I had my first experience wakeboarding. Don't worry, I'm still probably one of the most uncoordinated people you've ever met. I managed to get up a little bit but never went over the wakes.

After lake powell, I went to Temecula for a couple weeks and spent time with the family, which was a blast. You just can't beat Southern California; In N Out, the beach, Disneyland, not to mention the shopping.

August 31 finally rolled around which was bitter sweet. I love fall in Provo. It is so beautiful with the trees changing in the mountains and everything. But, with fall comes school. This semester is my last semester of prereqs and then I'll be applying to get in the Business school come Spring. The semester has been going pretty well so far, it's been an adjustment getting back to school life, but I'm doing my best to appreciate it.

One thing I never understood about BYU is how they can have "midterms" less than a month into school. I have my first Calculus "midterm" on Friday, so this will be a week where you can find me spending a lot of time with Harold B. Lee, in the library.

Home Stretch

Things have been so crazy since I got back to London from Scotland. I've been trying to fit in so much before I head home. It's been fun, but tiring at the same time. Well worth it though. I don't think I'll be back in London anytime soon, so I don't want to go home regretting anything. Anyway, here are some of the things I've been up to.

Buckingham Palace: watched the changing of the guard. No wait, let me correct myself, I tried to see the changing of the guard by standing on my tiptoes to see over the thousands of other tourists watching the changing of the guard. There were so many people!! But it was pretty cool. Very strict and intense. My favorite part was the horses that the guards ride into Buckingham Palace on, they're so pretty!

Primrose Hill: There's this gorgeous park in London that has a massive hill in the middle. We went here the day after getting home from Scotland. We got up most of the hill and then stopped and took about a half hour nap haha. After the nap we made it to the top. So beautiful! It was a perfect day to look out at London. No rain :) It was so sunny. You could see everything from St. Paul's Cathedral, to the London Eye! It was great.

St. Paul's Cathedral: I feel like I've seen a LOT of Cathedrals since I've been here, but I REALLY enjoyed this one. It was much less dark than the othe Cathedrals. This is probably because the other ones I've been to are Catholic. You can go to the top of St. Cathedral's and about half way up you can stop in the "whispering room". I loved this. Okay so the whispering room is probably about 30m in diameter. If one person goes to the other side of the Cathedral and whispers, you can hear it! I felt like I was in Harry Potter or something haha.

Dirty Dancing(the play): One of my favorite shows I've seen here so far. Very entertaining, and the dancing was great! I have never seen the movie so I went into the play not really knowing what to expect. But I really enjoyed it.

Prime Meridian(Greenwich): Greenwich is so pretty! It's one of those cute little towns with little shops and markets everywhere. I also got to stand on the line of 0 degrees! haha very neat.

London Eye: for those of you who don't know what London Eye is, it's a massive ferris wheel pretty much. But instead of sitting in an open circular seat, you're sitting in a huge enclosed capsule. At the top most part of the London Eye, you can see just about everything in London. We were a little bummed because it was a pretty rainy night on Saturday(you have to prebook your ticket, and in London you're always kind of taking a risk that it'll rain). However, when we got to the top of our ride(the whole ride takes about half hour), this beautfiul sunset came out of nowhere! we got some great pics and just stuning views! It was definitly a night I'll never forget.

Alright, this week is gonna be a struggle. I have 3 or 4 papers(I'm not really on top of my schoolwork), one quiz, three finals, and no time to study. Wish me luck!

The Exhaustion Is Hitting Me

Edinburgh
Abbotsford

Harry Potter Castle

This week was full of interesting experiences. Bright and early Monday morning we hit the bus to head to Scotland. We did so much in so little time, but I'll just give you the highlights and not bore you with the less interesting details.

City of York: I loved the feel of this town. Even though I'm getting sick of all the Abbeys we go to, it was definitly worth it to go to Yorkminster because you could climb to the top and the view was spectacular.

Castles: I'm truly obsessed. I don't know what my fascination is, but I seriously love all castles. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out we were staying at a castle! Who knew you could even do that? The castle we stayed at was the same one where Harry Potter was filmed. You know I'm gonna claim that.

Durham: The trip as a whole was filled with gorgeous views that I can't even do justice by describing. But behind the Lake District, Durham was definitly the highest ranked when it comes to eye appeal. We were only there for 12 hours, but Kylee and I managed to go running twice just so we could soak up as much of the views as possible. There was this river you could run along and it was the most serene area!

Ambleside: the best way to describe this place is a little sailor town. I was so fun. We went on a boat ride, and it was freezing, but there were castles so I was fine. I decided that 20 years from now I'm going on my second honeymoon there. Ha I have my second decided, but not my first.

Hostels: okay now I'd like to think of myself as a girl who can endure quite a bit when it comes to rougher areas. The first couple nights I was surprised by the cleanliness of the hostels we stayed in. However, our final night was the sickest thing ever!! We stayed in this one hostel and the whole thing stunk or urine and there were spiders EVERYWHERE! I seriously didn't know how I was going to sleep there. If it hadn't been so cold and windy I'm positive it would have been more sanitary to sleep on the grass outside.

All in all Scotland was great!Scottish people are super friendly andthe more north you go, the prettier it gets. Now I have 9 days left in London and then back to Provo. I feel like I've accomplished all I wanted to and been to MOST of the places on my "London checklist".

Are you in the que?

Hen Party
Hampton Court Palace

the Jordans flying a helicopter


Portsmouth

This week has been a riot. And looking back, I feel like this week started two weeks ago. I swear the time goes by so slow. I think it's becase we try and cram so many activities in one day, plus keep up on schoolwork, plus keep in touch with our peeps on the mainland. It's exhausting, let me tell ya.

Wednesday we went to Portsmouth. It's a quaint little town on the coast. Finally saw the Atlantic. It was just like the Pacific. We saw some really interesting navy historical sites. I would bore you with the information, but I've spent the past couple hours doing papers(while facebooking and ipoding and organizing pics, I'm a really inefficient student out here). Anyway it was fun to have a little change of scenery. I really missed that ocean smell, it was good to be by the sea again.

Thursday we had a midterm. Our time here is half way over....CRAZY! I'm too scared to check my grade. I went on blackboard but chickened out and didn't even log in. I'm such a baby. Anyway, to celebrate we went to Hyde Park and layed out. It was actually kind of chilly, but I just feel like my skin is getting so white here.

Friday was very eventful. We went to this place called Hampton Court where King Henry VIII resided. I feel like most historical sites in London are themed around King Henry VIII, he was a big dea though. He started the Reformation because he wanted a divorce from his wife and the Catholic church wouldn't recognize it. See, I'm learning lots out here. Annnnnyway it was beautiful. The gardens were amazing. I could have just hung out there all day. But we had to get home because we were going to see Les Mis! Which was great. I wish I had a little more energy when watching plays. I feel like I'm always worn out here so anytime we do an activity where I'm sitting in the dark, it takes a lot of effort to not doze off. Don't worry though, I stayed awake for the whole thing.

Saturday=favorite day of the week. We went on this 9 mile walk in the country side. So BEAUTIFUL! I know I say that a lot on my blog. But I felt like I was in a fantasy land or something. I've decided that if I ever live in England, it would be in the country. We went and saw these lavender fields and they were unbelievable. Hands down the prettiest field of any other crop. We also saw a couple castles. I really love castles. Then that night we all went out to Hard Rock Cafe for a Bachelorette Party. One of the girls here is getting married four days after she gets home, NUTS! Don't worry, of course she is younger than me. Haha but bachelorette parties here are called "hen"parties, and bachelor parties are called "stag" parties. We were lucky enough to run into some fellow henners, but they were much more intoxicated than our group. Quite entertaining.

Bonjour!

Palace de Versailles

Kylee

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Eifell Tower

Louvre

Baguettes!

Arch De Triumph

Notre Dame

Montmarte

We had a "free weekend" this past weekend where we had no school activities from Thursday-Saturday so 7 of us girls took off to Paris. Crepes, pastries, creme brulee, baguettes, the food was SO GOOD. I'm actually so grateful I'm not in Paris on a study abroad because I'm sure I would gain so much weight.

Fortunately, we were able to fit a week long's worth of activities into 50 hours. How, you ask? Well you sleep very little and you go through each museum at turbo speed. This probably wasn't the best way to really observe Paris, but it was a blast! I felt like we did so much but out of Montmarte, Notre Dame, Arch De Triumph, the Louvre, the Eifell Tower, and Palace of Versialles I enjoyed the most cliche out of all of them:the Eifell Tower. The girls I was with had to do some convincing to get me to go up to the top, but I'm SO glad I did. The view was beautiful. Paris at night=most gorgeous sight EVER.

Even though I enjoyed Paris, not everything was perfect. We had some interesting run ins with guys on the Metro. Literally, our first step onto that thing and guys were using the little english they knew to hit on us. One guy even said "How are you?" and then before we answered he said "Good Morning". Haha he must have just put the only two lines of English he knew together. Also, we had some hotel issues. Basically, I'm 99%sure that the movie Taken was filmed into the hotel one of my friends booked and everything about it was super sketc. So, naturally we spent a total of half an hour there and cut our losses and went and found another hotel.

Since I only got to be in Paris for a weekend I have decided that I must go back and spend more time there. Being there for only a little over 2 days was kind of a tease. Nevertheless, I'm so glad I went!

Cheers!

Big Ben

Wicked!


The Group

Stourhead

Pride and Prejudice

Bath

So pretty!

Stonehenge

Sorry I'm the worst blogger ever. It's been over a week since the last time I updated, but I have been kind of busy and I try not to be on the computer too much. BUT I have made a resolution to keep my blog more up to date, so we'll see how it goes.

Last Monday I got the chance to go see As You Like It at the Globe. I actually wasn't very excited because I didn't know this play very well, but It was a great play! It was really funny and it was so cool being in the Globe. It was such a good atmosphere. Afterwards we also just hung out ad checked out the London Bridge, which is so pretty at night. I feel like a lot of things in London are a lot prettier at night.

Wednesday was a big day for the Study Abroad program. Our day started with Stonehenge. I decided that it was built for a really intense game of hide and go seek. No, I'm kidding. Kind of. But no one really knows the reason it was built. We spent about 45 minutes just listening to all the different theories of why it's there. The bus driver said it was a way to get tourists to pay to look at some rocks, haha,he was pretty amusing.

We then headed to Bath and spent sometime exploring the Roman Baths. I decided if I ever get the chance to come back and live in the UK(I know dream on, right?) I'd want to live in the city of Bath. There were such nice people there and there was the most beautiful river running in the center of the city.

Finally, we went to Stourhead. What's that? Wellll this is where Pride & Prejudice as filmed. As you can imagine, the girls in my study abroad we're soooo pumped about this. Personally, I'm one of those girls who falls asleep when Pride and Prejudice was playing(I actually did sleep the whole bus ride because they had this movie playing) I thought Stourhead was going to be really boring. I was so wrong. Most beautiful place I've ever been. Hands down. Gorgeous lakes, massive trees, and the cutest bridges everywhere. Oh and the gardens were insane! If you ever get the chance to go there, DONT PASS IT UP!

Thursday was a big day. Wimbledon, round 2! haha. It was SO HOT! I was dying. But we spent a good 7-8 hours watching tennis. One mixed doubles, One girls doubles(not gonna lie, kind of boring, I just don't think I like girls sports that much, unless it's serena) , and one men's doubles. I think the men's doubles was my favorite. The match was so close, and so long.

Friday we went to Southall and explored 3 different Indian temples. Different experience, that's for sure. It was interesting to see how different they worship. It really strengthened my testimony and made me appreciate how sacred our temples are to us. It was weird for me to just watch others in their temples because I always consider the times I go to the temple to be so personal to me. I would be a little taken back if someone was just observing while I did baptisms.

Friday night I got to go see WICKED!!! I had seen it in LA last summer, but I actually enjoyed it more in the Victoria theater here. Any of you who have seen Wicked know exactly how happy I was on Friday night. It was great. Go see it if you haven't.

Saturday we spent in Portabello Market, which is a massive market north of Hyde Park and there's TONS of tourists. It was so packed. But there was food, clothes, jewellery, pretty much anything you can imagine.

Tonight I get to go see Chicago! I'm so pumped.

Mind the Gap

Andy Murray
Wimbledon :) So Fun

Killers

Hard Rock Calling

Killers Fan

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

This weekend has been a blast. I'm a little burnt out if I'm being completely honest. I just woke up from a two and a half hour nap. It's Sunday, so I think that's allowed. Also, I haven't had one nap since I got here, not even on the day I flew in.

On Friday we got to go to the Tower of London. My favorite room was the Crown Jewels. Queen Victoria's crown had over 2,300 diamonds. Walking out of the room I just envisioned myself wearing a crown for awhile...I still think it would be a good idea.

Friday night a few girls and I lucked out and got to go to the musical festical called Hard Rock calling which was just across the street from us in Hyde Park. We somehow not only got tickets, but they were super cheap tickets. One guy gave us a ticket for free(it pays to be American girls) and a scalper sold us three tickets, each of them 20 pounds under his original asking price. Who knew we could bargain so well? Anyway, we saw the Kooks open for the Killers and it was amazing. 45,000 English people, each one OBSESSED with the Killers. They're huge in England. I've been a fan for awhile now, so I really enjoyed that. Amazing concert, I was stoked.

Saturday was amazing as well. A couple girls and I went to Wimbledon! It was out of control. So many people, everyone was going crazy for Andy Murray. Some of the tickets were equivalent to 5000 US dollars. It was out of control. Maybe one day I can come back to occupy one of those seats. Just maybe. But I was more than happy with just being there.

Today was my first Sunday in my London ward. It was definitly a different ward from what I'm used to, but that's why I'm here: to see those differences. So, how it works is of the 40 of us study abroad students we're each split up into 5 different wards. The wards really take advantage of having active members in the ward, especially ones who can play the piano (obviously I was of no use in that department). But in order for us to get there we had to take the tube to get to the train and then walk to the Primary School where church was held. We left at 8am and got there at 10am. It was quite the journey.

The members were so sweet. As new "members" each study abroad student was asked to bare their testimony and I felt a little out of place as 85% of the ward was black, which was very unexpected. They are all so great though and they came up and gave us each hugs after Sacrament Meeting. It was a great experience, I'm excited to get to know the ward better.

Anyway this week we have a day trip to Bathe, and a play tomorrow night and hopefully I'll make it to one more day of Wimbledon. Hopefully!

Love Love London

Fun English Boys in Hyde Park

My FAVORITE dress in V&A Museum

The coolest display showing the average amount of

pills taken in an English lifetime(14,000)

Fish & Chips!!

HYDE PARK :)

haha a different side of Hyde Park

I made it safely to London. The plane ride was kind of hard, there was a screaming baby so I didn't sleep much. I have loved every minute. This city is beautiful. There's some really cool girls here so I'm glad about that. Hyde Park is my favorite place. It's so beautiful. It's this massive park where people walk around, play in the pond, make out(see above picture), work out, whatever they want really. On Wednesday we went to a British Museum and did some shopping.Also, I got hit on by a 46 year old man. He did show us where the best Fish and Chips place was, so I should've married him, but he told me I was a true beauty, and he's looking for awife like me. Let me tell you, these Britts hit on Americans like it's no one's business. The British Museum was massive! I was overwhelmed. But there were a lot of really interesting things. My favorite museum was today, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and they had this whole room on Fashion!!! I was loving it. I seriously spent an hour in there. They had these dresses from the 1800's beautiful!!! and they had a really cool jewellery room as well. Also, I got the chance to go to Harrod's. Wow, that place is heaven. HEAVEN! I wish I was a millionaire. Finally, at the end of the day I got to experience my first pub. Super cool. These two guys were playing music and were pretty good, I got to hear some Oasis, and also Third Eye Blind, can't go wrong.