finals and olympic soccer GOLD

hey everyone! sorry i missed blogging yesterday. yesterday all i did was study. i only left the house once to go get lunch. nothing interesting there. sad right?!
so today we took finals! it seems like forever ago. at 9 am we had our history final that lasted two hours. then we had a two hour break and had our english final from 1-3. i studied so hard, probably harder than i have in provo! these finals were beasts though. so i'm hoping i did okay. 
and then today got interesting! after finals i started packing, writing my last postcards, and getting ready to go to the womens soccer gold medal match. yeah that's right, i went to THE game and watched the american girls take gold!!!!!!!! 
it was AMAZING. i have to say though, this was the first time i experienced the wrath of the olympic crowds. oh my goodness. not pleasant. but this game was literally perfect. it was at Wembley Stadium, which is where all the international games are played in London. it's kind of a big deal. it's a huge stadium, and sadly it wasn't full. i'm sure if all the seats were available it would've sold out. but regardless the crowd tonight set a record for the most attended womens olympic event ever!! there were like 80,000 of us!! 
surprisingly there were a ton of japanese fans. also, all the people that had tickets but weren't from japan or the US tended to cheer for japan. we talked to some british people and asked them why... i have decided it's kind of like how everyone hates the lakers. they win every time, so you can't help but hate them! so that's how everyone feels here too. they are sick of us winning. hahah. oh well suckers! 
we sat super high up! we were probably the tenth row from the top. i actually like it though! then you can see everything going on. we weren't really by any american fans and i could tell we were really annoying the british family in front of us because we were so loud but i could've cared less! my throat hurts i was yelling so much! after we scored the first goal (amazing, amazing head by carly lloyd) i literally screamed. like a scream you hear on a rollercoaster. it was just the best. i belted the national anthem and i think i sounded like a dying cow. it was just the best thing ever. i loved that we played japan. rematch for the world cup loss last year! revenge is so sweet! the game was seriously just perfect. it was obvious that we were the better team but japan still made it interesting. hope solo had an amazing game. there were no bad fouls... it was just amazing. 
i'm sorry this is such a badly organized post but it's like 2 am so i'm just saying whatever comes to mind. i went with two people from my group, michael and lauren. i got these olympic tickets from a site that i later found out was illegal, so i was really scared the tickets were fake. i compared them to my track tickets for tomorrow, which i know are real, and nothing was different. so i figured we would just have to go to the stadium and find out! i have to say when the little green light went on when i scanned the ticket i think the heavens opened up. i was ecstatic. after we got in we climbed up and up and up... then into the stadium. walking through the gate and seeing the field for the first time really took my breath away. i took lots of videos but guess what guys.. all my pictures on my camera from tonight got deleted. it was the first time i took my camera instead of just my iphone and i dont know what happened. i am way bummed cause i had some great pictures!!!! ughhh. 

the tube was INSANE! 

we have to get patted down so you get divided by gender

hope solo doing her victory lap!

canada, US, japan in the medal ceremony. called the 'victory ceremony'

wembley from afar

you can't really tell, but yes those are mounted policeman (on horse) holding back the crowd from entering the tube station

anyways i am so tired you guys. i seriously had a night i will never forget! i can't believe it just happened. america rocks. yay. 

a royal day out

woah woah woah you guys! time is going way too fast! make it stop! 
so today we did buckingham palace, something I have never done before!! we bought the 'royal day out' ticket so we got three parts to our tour. we first started in the queens gallery which is currently showing an exhibit on leonardo da vinci. i thought this would be kind of boring and i wanted to go straight to the state rooms but this exhibit was AMAZING. it was basically 60 illustrations taken straight out of an unpublished anatomical study done by da vinci that was attained by the english crown in the 1700s. who knows why. basically da vinci is my new hero. he was a genius. it was absolutely unreal. usually i breeze through museums and just read the plaques for the stuff that looks interesting to me, but i literally looked and read every single piece. it was that cool. 

next was the royal mews, which i love! good memories there with my mom and my sister. the royal mews are the old stables that are a part of buckingham palace. they don't hold horses there anymore (i did see two today, though!) but it still smells like horses and i LOVE it. makes me miss pootah. but now these stables are the home of the state carriages and the cars. so freaking cool. the best part is the gold state carriage they use for coronation ceremonies. it is so intense. its funny in the little info thing it says that most of the royal family actually doesn't like riding around in it because it's notoriously bumpy. i will let the pictures do most of the talking here. so cool. definitely a must see, and its cool because most people dont know about it so it's usually pretty empty. 

next was the state rooms. if i were to say i was stoked to go to this it would be an understatement. they get you all pumped up before you go in so that was fun. i definitely wasn't disappointed. the word i would use to describe Buckingham is magnificent. i know it sounds cheesy but i was seriously just in awe the whole time, it was so beautiful. and it wasn't like super gaudy like Versailles.. not that versailles isn't beautiful. something about it just bugs me. probably the fact that it's french. but wow i just loved it. my very favorite part was the grand staircase. its just like the cliche grand staircases in the movies with a landing in the middle... i couldn't help but picture myself in a big princess dress going to a ball or something. why am i not a princess again?! hahah nahh just kidding. but it was so cool. mostly we saw drawing rooms, the ballroom, and some galleries that holds paintings and sculptures. it's like a museum within itself. it would be insane to know how much all the artwork is worth in there.

for the queens jubilee there is a special exhibit within buckingham. it's called 'diamonds' (get it? cause it's the diamond jubilee... hehe) and it's basically an extension of the crown jewels. i felt like this was even cooler though because it's the jewelry the queen actually wears. it was amazing. her brooches, her tiaras, earrings, necklaces... it was so so so cool. obviously i couldn't take pictures in the palace or in the diamonds in exhibit so you have to see it to believe it. 
after that i headed back to notting hill and went to eat. the traffic was pretty crazy because the triathlon was going on in Hyde Park. i literally felt like I was in the middle of war zone because there were press helicopters everywhere, it was intense. but anyways back to lunch because that's significantly more exciting. i had a ham, brie and cranberry baguette, as well as my little muesli pot. then i headed back to the centre and wrote my paper for english! yikesss. i also started packing up my carry on with all the clothes i've bought. double yikes. hahah. 
then it was time for dinner and theatre! me and chelsea went to taza and got schwarma. nom nom nom. then it was our last night out at the theatre.. tonight was war horse! it was AMAZING. war horse is a big deal in london because it's super unique. it's obviously focused on the story of the horse and the horse is a wooden puppet operated by three people. it sounds weird but it is so well done. you forget that you are watching three people manipulate a wooden puppet and feel like you are watching a real horse on stage. chelsea also cried twice. so yeah. it's legit. so cool, definitely a must see. all in all today was amazing! hopefully it will make up for tomorrow because i'm basically locking myself in here to study and i'm super not stoked for that. yee-ha. 

hope everyone is doing good! miss you all. 

H A R R Y P O T T E R

Hello from the last Monday in the UK! this is the saddest of the sad! but i am telling you now i plan on going out with a bang! so get excited for a good week of blogging!
so this morning was our last day of class. basically i am so stressed. finals are thursday. there are so many things i want to do in this amazing city but i really want to do well in class as well. i need scholarship money! hahaha paying for school is no bueno! so pray for me that i can pull off good grades in these classes!
after class i went to the post office and mailed my huge box of london goodies home! my arms were shaking afterwards it was so dang heavy! but i am glad to have that on the way to lawg city! (logan). after that i went and got lunch at my favorite place.. eat! yes it's called eat. they have THE best baguettes. ham and jarlsberg. yummy! i also got a little muesli pot which are my very favorite thing in the world. basically yogurt is my drug these days. i am addicted. i went and ate it on the upper floor and felt very local and cool. i loved it. i will miss london so much. after that i hopped on the central line and went to oxford circus to do some last shopping! first i went to top shop. oh my gosh. it got so cute while i was in scotland. also it isn't so crazy as when i went a few weeks ago. isn't that weird?! i was so scared because the olympics are in full swing but it wasn't even bad. so weird. but i got an america shirt and a new pair of leather flats to replace those cute t-straps i got that first week because they are TRASHED. they smell so bad. i definitely got my moneys worth out of those babies! i wish i had more money though because that place was so cute... i wanted everything!!!! then i was off to my favorite.. Liberty! i thought i was done but i just had to go back. everytime i go back i fall in love with that store more. i got lots of gifts there. so family get excited! i also have a liberty loyalty card now! hahahah. this is concerning. i will miss that place!
after that i had to hustle home cause it was time to do the Harry Potter set tour! i was sooooo stoked! just me and chelsea went which worked out really well. i love doing things in small groups. so we took the tube and then a train out to this smaller town. then we got on a bus to the studio. you walk into the set and of course there is the gift shop. this got me so excited. they had all the legit souveneirs. wands, quidditch uniforms, jewelry, chocolate frogs, uniforms, stuffed owls... so so so much cool stuff! but all of it was so insanely overpriced!! it was painful! but i did get some stuff :) it was funny, i asked the girl working at the till (cash register) if she liked working there, and she said yes, but she always dreamed of getting transferred to orlando. so then i told her about how i am moving to orlando! also another tour guide was telling the crowd to enter to win a trip to orlando so i thought that was funny. i am so lucky!
so anyways, then you go stand in line for the tour. while you are waiting in line you see the first set, the cupboard under the stairs! everyone is so excited you can feel it. then you walk in and go through two different rooms, stopping in each to watch a film to get you super stoked. it's very disney-esque. they did an AMAZING job. so after the second film they end with this great dramatic scene with danielle radcliffe, emma watson and rupert grint (harry, hermione and ron) walking through the big wooden door to the great hall and i thought how cool would it be if the screen just lifted and that door was there? and guess what.. that's exactly what happened. it was seriously magical. one of the best parts was the tour guides and people that worked there were just as excited as the guests were. it was awesome.
so they open the big doors... and you are in literally in THE great hall. its THE set they used. all the tables, chairs, silverware... and up in the front they have these mannequin like things wearing THE costumes so it looks like the characters are there. they did an amazing job. it was surreal. being on the set you also notice a lot of detail you dont pick up on in the movie. it is amazing how much work went into this movie. i still can't get over it and i've been home for three hours.
throughout the sets and soundstages they have lots of placards and movies that they did an awesome job with. they interview cast and crew and it seriously was so fascinating. we spent four hours there and i won't lie, you could probably spend six there. we were the last group so we were a tad rushed because it was closing.
me and chelsea also stood in line to get pictures in front of the green screen on brooms and in the weasleys flying car! it was so funny. after that you have a little refreshment break and they have butter beer! it was SO good. its basically cream soda, but the froth on top is so good. it kind of has a salted caramel taste and its amazing. at this point you go through the outside sets which are number 4 privet drive, the knight bus, tom riddles grave... etc. then you go back inside and see all the mini models of hogwarts and concept art which was amazing. then you walk into this room and its hogwarts castle! it seriously took my breath away. it's a 1/24 scale of it that they use to pan around in the first movie. seriously amazing. then you walk through Diagon Alley! this was so cool to me because just a few days ago i was in the Shambles in york which is what they based it on. after reading all the stuff it was so cool to see the places that they based a lot of the set on. for instance, hogwarts is based a lot on durham cathedral.. which is where i was just yesterday!! also most of the outdoors stuff was in scotland, which i can totally relate to now. it was just amazing. i am in shock. it was like disneyland, just as good. and you know that means a lot coming from me! basically this is a MUST SEE in london!!!
we got SO lucky and made the last bus and barely made our train! once we got into our neighborhood we went to Tazas because chelsea hadn't had it yet! mmmm so nom. i decided to go healthy though so i went into sainsburys and got a egg and rocket sandwich, a banana, and a muesli pot! so yummmy :) mmm :) then we came back to the centre and watched the americans kick booty in basketball!

costumes in the great hall. notice harry's first little uniform outfit! so cute!! 

costumes, costumes, costumes! my favorite-hermiones dress from the yule ball from the tri wizard tournament 

wigs! here you can see snape and bellatrix's hair 

harry's dorm!

wands! 

invisibility cloak! 

dumbledore's office. sorting hat in the back! 

memory cabinet from dumbledores officE 

potions room! 

my favorite kitty :) 

the gringotts flying thingy

umbridges pink kitty room 

chocolate frog! waiting in line to get pictures on brooms in front of the green screen

BUTTERBEER! so good! 

tom riddles grave! crazy i just saw the one that inspired her in scotland! 

guess the address... number 4 privet drive! 

creepy voldemort baby thing

diagon alley!!

this literally took my breath away.. the hogwarts castle! 

so that was my day! i wish i could do the harry potter tour justice. just know that it seriously was amazing. like wow. tomorrow is buckingham palace and war horse. see ya then!