so last time you heard from me i said i was hiking through kent! yeah.. that didn't happen :( our group went, but it was optional. this week all of our big stuff is due because it's basically our last full week here at the centre (next week we are going to scotland and the lake district) so i had a ton of stuff i needed to do, so i stayed home! aren't i a good student? so this was tuesday. so i woke up and did dish crew. then i took a nap. then after that i worked on my paper all afternoon!! then i did dish crew for dinner which seriously takes up your whole night. you start at 4:30 and don't get done till around eight so it really sucks. then after that i did the only exciting thing of the whole day! haha because the program screwed us up in stratford and we didn't get to see twelfth night they got us tickets to see "chariots of fire" on the west end! it was good! i wouldn't see it again but it was cool. so obviously it's about running.. so there's a track that loops out into the audience, and some people are actually seated behind the stage! it was cool. i'm sorry to say it, but the west end will never be broadway. i said this when i saw singing in the rain too. (which was awesome!) the stages are just so much smaller, the production isn't as mind-blowing... and let's be honest, no little girl (or boy) dreams of growing up and singing on broadway in the UK like they do in the states! i think that's a really american notion. but back to my original topic- chariots of fire was cool because it was centered around the olympics in france right after world war one so it definitely got people all stoked for that. especially if you were british. at the end for the final bow all the actors came out in the uk team apparel for the olympics. so that part was cool!! and that was seriously my whole day! how sad is that?
picadilly circus! not quite times square..
i did write a pretty good four page paper though.. so here's hoping that pays off and i keep my scholarship! that's my only motivation for this trip. haha if i didn't have to keep that i would blow everything off.wednesday! so we had class on wednesday and not a coach trip because we didn't have one this week. okay well i guess that's sort of a lie because we are going to greenwich tomorrow. but that's different. anywho. so class! yeah that was super fun. after that me and chelsea went down by notting hill to try this chain called nando's. its technically portuguese but its basically just a chicken place. people love it! i guess what makes them famous is their sauce. it's called piri piri if that means anything to anyone? but its like a spicy tomato sauce that's a little creamy? it comes in a few different variations and you choose which one you like. it was pretty good! it's definitely a local popular chain so i'd say i felt all local and cool and whatever. nando's and wagamama's are london's two main food chains i'd say. after that i went to get my olympic tickets! i rode the tube over to edgware road to westminster city college where the company i got them thru, cosport, is set up. i was surprised to see a crazy line! but i got in and didn't think it'd be a big deal. an hour and a half later i realized i wasn't gonna make it in time to get back for my extra credit lecture! so i ducked out of line and decided i'd have to rough it some other time.
so i got back to the centre and i had a little surprise! my friend brynne and her mom were in the lobby! brynne is a girl i met winter semester that has helped me a lot with the disney program. she has been cinderella for two summers and she's the one that logged into the system to tell me i was working in fantasyland! she is such a sweetheart! but she is here working for the olympics!! so i talked to her for a while and it was awesome! made my day :)
after that we had a lecture from this guy who has studied at oxford and cambridge. he was very smart. he talked about the british identity today and it was really interesting. it was also interesting because he was pretty conservative.. and you definitely don't find that here in britain! also it was extra credit so yayyyy.
that lasted like an hour then we decided to go get frozen yogurt on queensway! we didn't have dinner at the centre because thais was cooking little finger foods for this reception that night with the guy that gave us the lecture. after that we were planning on riding bikes through hyde park, but the freaking terminal was broken! you're probably wondering what the heck i'm talking about. so barclays (the bank) sponsors these bikes all throughout the city that you can rent and then return wherever you ride it to. it's really convenient! and if you only use if for 30 minutes it's free, so we were hoping to ride them thru hyde park, to the opposite side where the hyde park ward is located! but the little rental computer wasn't working. so we walked! it was lovely. bloody hot. but lovely. so then we got to the hyde park ward! you are probably confused again haha i am not doing so good at explaining today. so the byu centre for european studies is celebrating 10 years so they are doing this series and inviting the public so they can see our facilities. this was the first one! it was at the hyde park chapel (which just got renovated and looks great!) and it had the guy that lectured us earlier in the day talking about political and religious liberty in britain. cool stuff! it was especially interesting for me to hear what he thought of the integration of islam into the society. very interesting. but it was funny because at the little reception all 3 programs that are in england right now came. us, the film studies program, and the cambridge group. basically we are all the stereotypical byu students (for the most part) in goofy modest clothes, the film group is all the really liberal artsy kids that don't really fit in (hahahah sorry but it's true) and the cambridge kids are all the ambitious snotty RMs that aren't married yet. haha sorry but that's the truth! it was an interesting dynamic it was fun to watch. after that we headed back to the centre, i read like 200 pages of books i didn't really want to read... it was great! the end!
hyde park chapel and visitors centre!
before i end this lovely little post i just want to get something across.. heat in london in NOT FUN! it got up to almost 90 degrees today and it is straight up miserable! the centre has no air conditioning except in the classroom... and who wants to stay in the centre anyways? also it's humid so you just feel sticky all the time. plus there are approximately 1 million extra people here now because of the olympics so it's crowded and just no fun! the tube is terrible! ....but i still love it here! seriously i don't want to leave so soon :( but i will be happy to see rain clouds and the mid sixties :) anyways hope everyone has a great day! i will blog about today later tonight! much love! 
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