I'm twenty, but I'm still a teenager.

I've never really been a Taylor Lautner fan, but tonight… He was looking kind of, really cute. And tonight I got soaked for him in the London rain.

London Town.

Everyday in London thus far has been full of adventures, so my weak attempt to summarize this past week will be in list format:

1. Our first play in London was Legally Blonde the Musical at the Savoy Theater. We all logically dressed in black white and pink. We looked like a sorority.

2. I was called to teach young women’s.

3. We all went to the Royal Albert Hall for the Philadelphia philharmonic symphony. (It was so good they gave two encores).

4. Richard III. Long. Thriving on Richard…

5. Kitchen duty. I will never complain about dishes at home after dinner prep/ clean up for 60 people.

6. Vogue Fashion’s Night Out. London 2011. September 8. There was a free Vogue photo booth, Leonardo did my hair, and I finally bought my rain boots for 25% off.

7. I had my first pub experience. Fran met a drummer and next thing we knew we were at their show… The Elgin was the cutest pub to hear the Ryan O’Reilly Band.

8. I have fallen semi-in-love-with McDonalds, and I’m super embarrassed about it, because I usually hate fast food, but I had to get my share of protein, because I promised my mom I’d be a semi-vegetarian while here in London. Mad cow disease? = I ordered a chicken sandwich.

9. I went running in Hyde Park around Serpentine Lake.

10. I attempted to watch Notting Hill in our classroom on Friday night, but I of course fell asleep. (Maggie summarized what I missed).

11. I ate at Café Diana and accepted free baklava from the restaurant owner after we clarified that I wasn’t actually Arab or Greek.

12. Visited Primark way too many times.

13. Slept in a total of once = 9:30 AM.

14. Done laundry twice (washed my sheets twice).

15. Lied in Stephanie’s twin-sized bed with three other girls to watch the BYU game at midnight. Devoted fans.

16. Camden Market.

17. Portobello Road/Market.

18. Failed to communicate to our cook in Portuguese and Spanish...

19. End of Summer Festival.

Off to Scotland today!

I'm a hanger snob.

Our first concert in London at St. Martin in the Fields… Mozart and Handel.

I'm on the top bunk, notice the adorable quilt my mom made me for my 20th birthday (first birthday away from home… I'm like two... It's fine).

my closet.

I went to four different stores before finally finding hangers, the right kind of hangers that is. Marks and Spencer was my last try, and to my dismay… they didn’t sell hangers either, but the very nice lady offered to give me hangers for free and refused my offer to pay for them. It made me think much better thoughts about the Brits.

I saved my homework for the plane.

In my rush to get ready for London, I chose to forget that I had homework. I instead spent my preparation time… socializing and packing, but mostly just not homework. I waved goodbye to my parents as they watched me go through security (the full body scan, because I was the lucky winner, selected for the extreme check?) and walked briskly to my terminal.

My plane ride consisted of writing two mini research papers and a five page single spaced autobiography. I struggled with the research papers, because I mostly had no research to work off of, besides Wikipedia, which might not actually be a credible source, and a few other minor sites, but that and my knowledge from HUM 202 got me through the papers. The autobiography should have been simple enough, but indulging in myself has never been so hard, but I finished and was ready to conquer London, with or without sleep.

I was giddy when we got out of the van at the London Center, but tried to control myself. The Center is old, yet so beautiful and the rickety stairs already seem like home. The classroom?.. It’s getting there. We have gone on multiple walks, and I am slowly becoming familiar with the city, as I hopefully overcome jetlag. I’ve been speaking in my best British accent (poor); I changed my current city on facebook to London, and I shop at the local Boots and Tesco, so I am an official (wanna be) Londoner.

ps I'll post pictures next time, for my mother, but it was about time I rid the cat that pops up each time I visit my blog.

I found this on a greeting card..

AND…... I'm convinced it's true.

The mandatory BYU meal card for all freshmen living on campus is bad.

Mostly because…..

ONE: It’s incredibly expensive.

TWO: It gave me no proper perception of the value of the dollar. In my mind I had an endless supply of money, and in a way I did… I struggled to use all the money left over on my card and no longer viewed it as money, but like a point system. I was always around 80-100 “points”.

THREE: The card, in fact, became my credit card. It was instinctive to pull out my student ID card when at the Movie Theater, mall or any other place. If they didn’t take dining plus, they didn’t get my service.

FOUR: I discovered how to use a vending machine=very dangerous.

FIVE: It has made for addictive habits. Upon arriving at BYU I was overwhelmed by the food selection. As I slowly discovered the new world of food on campus, my diet changed, in an I-need-my-daily-Twix-bar-before-noon-kind-of-way. I loved Twix bars. One time Stover Hall was all out of Twix bars, as was Taylor Hall, I finally found my candy of choice at David John. Later, Kelsie bought me an endless supply of Twix bars; she must have felt bad for my pathetic addiction... she’s so nice. Unfortunately, Twix bars weren’t the only things I came to love. The Skyroom was frequented by me/Andrew/Clayton. And the boy at the creamery ran out of things to say to me as I waited for numerous hard-shakes. Subways lines didn’t seem to bug me as long as I could get a six-inch turkey on wheat bread. And Smart Waters were scattered all over my room (Can I even claim being addicted to water? Maybe just consuming the bottles?)

SIX: Freshmen fifteen… or twenty… or twenty five……… ??? I understand. The meal cards made it all too easy; I don't know how it didn't happen.

SEVEN: It served as another excuse to not do my homework. When I wanted a break from homework Kelsie and I visited the creamery for a raspberry chocolate shake.

***The meal card became a crutch for me to depend. And now I’m in summer semester, and I’m missing this crutch in my life and am living a slightly less fattening life. Except for yesterday, when I needed a hard-shake.

I've got it bad.

I have a semi back rub phobia, self diagnosed. And truly it's not really even a disease, because I just goggled it, and nothing of the sort was present… Instead, relationship advice and "social phobia" came up, and I don't quite see how those are related to my fear of sorts. But Skyler informed me that you get friends by giving people back rubs, so maybe there really is more of a connection than I thought. And maybe I have social phobia and maybe I'm weird. And maybe I'll eventually crack. But probably not. It's too hard for me.