England

July 8, 2008 Day 1 London, England

Well, first of all, we had to travel to get here!!! :) Sunday night, my mom, Kenzie Hill, and I drove up to Brigham City and stayed at my uncle's house. Monday morning, Uncle Mike drove us to Salt Lake and dropped us off at the airport. Everyone in our group met there, loaded the luggage, and set off on the 2 hour flight to Dallas, Texas. We grabbed a quick snack and then boarded the plane to London! It was a 9 hour flight and we didn't even leave Dallas until 5 pm, so when we reached London, it was 7 or 8 am here! WOW!

We picked up our luggage and then dropped it off in our motel. We then exchanged our US money for pounds! What a crazy experience that was! It is so strange to think that there are so many different money systems in this world. We learned how to ride the "Tube", pronounced "chube". It is an underground railroad that could take us anywhere in town, pretty much. We went to the world famous shopping store "Harrod's" and saw some monuments. The streets were so different, but fascinating! They were all laid out of stone. All of the buildings looked so different as well! A lot of white proper looking apartments stacked on top of each other...
Dinner was awesome! Then we went to the Globe Theatre! For some weird reason, it wasn't a Shakespeare play, like usual. It was...well, definitely an experience. Within the first 20 minutes, I had heard the F word about 30 times. I felt the sting in my heart and thought about leaving. I leaned over and asked mom if we could leave. She just kind of brushed it off and figured the play was going somewhere. A few more minutes went by and the F word kept going, and then something extremely crude and inappropriate was said. I felt the Spirit leave me and I felt horrible! ryan Petersen was sitting next to me and we both had our heads hanging down. I was trying to zone out and then mom nudged me and said we could leave. I leaned over and told Ryan that we were leaving and I hoped with all of my heart taht he would come with us. He did, and I felt so relieved. When we got outside, I turned around and saw that about 10 other people had come, too. I felt happy about that, but my heart still hurt that I hadn't left the first time I felt prompted.

That night, I asked ryan and Kyle if they wanted to have bedtime prayer. Kenzie, Teasha, Kyle, Ryan, and I all knelt down around a bed and said a prayer. I am soooo excited to be here! I kind of mentally prepared for this like a mission. Saying good bye to everyone was really hard. I kind of had an anxiety attack, haha, I guess it is better to have thsoe now, than when the real time comes. This is my first time away from home for so long! I am so grateful to be here and I am really happy my mom was able to come as well. I'm sure that this will change my life forever and I will learn so much! Woohoo! =)
London, England Day 2

Today was AWESOME!!!! We had time to cruise London and see a lot of cool things. We went to "The Tower of London", which is an old palace. We climbed up a few towers, saw a bunch of displays of swords and guns, and we saw all of the crown jewels. It was so neat! We started buying souvenirs today. I got a sweatshirt and key ring, and mom got some things for our family. She is also going to collect spoons on this trip.

While walking around ,we saw BIG BEN and that was cool! It is a huge clock up on a tower. I really liked it. All of the people were really nice, too! I LOVE their British accents. Our tour guide's name is Adam. The Idaho group is about 23 people, and the Tennessee group has a bout 4 people-1 student, 1 graduate, and 2 adults.

Things are still a little scary right now because we, Americans, have no idea where we are. London is a pretty big city and we grew up in Driggs, Idaho (not too big of a town). We are constantly reminded to be on our guard and to hold onto our possesssions.

We had a few interesting experiences on the Tube today! During lunch and right when everyone gets done with owrk, things get pretty crazy. There are tons of people hustling on and off. The doors stay open for about 1 minute or less, then a beeping goes off for 3 seconds, and the automatic doors slam shut. When I say slam, I mean SLAM shut! So today, we were scurrying through the crowd, all trying to load up on the Tube. All of the people coming out got out slowly, only leavign about 20 seconds for TONS of people to load. The majority of our group got on, but Broc Urban and Teasha Tolbert and our guide, Adam, were stuck behind a big crowd. Time was running out, so Teasha and Broc took off for another door to get in. All of the sudden, Teasha's flip flop fell off and she stopped running to reach down and grab it. Adam had gotten on and was watching anxiously out the door, ready to jump out if they didn't make it on. Suddenly, the beeping of the doors started. Broc's face looked petrified, as he realized they might get lelft behind and didn't know where we were going. He grabbed Teasha's hand, put his hands on her back, and literally shoved her through the air while he sprinted. They jumped into the Tube and with not a split second to spare, the doors slammed shut. All of us were laughing because it was quite the thing to observe. I think Broc's face was the funniest of all because he realized what missing the ride meant, Teasha didn't look like she had a clue. She was just worried about her shoe. =)

I had a weird experience tonight...It was rush hour traffic and we were on our way to dinner. Our group was filing onto the Tube with TONS of other people. I was in the back of the line, and when the seconds were ticking down, people cram into that thing like sardines. Suddenly, I was getting shoved in with a group of big, big, scary looking black guys. I thought to myself, "Ok, Heather. It is all ok!!! They can't do anything to you! This is a public place and your group is...somewhere in this sardine can. Just tough it out. It is ok!" I could feel their eyes shifting down at me and staring. I felt so awkward and uncomfortable, but I kept telling myself that nothing could happen to me. All of the sudden, I hear Adam's voice yelling with a sharp tone, "Heather!!! Heather!!!" My heart jumped. The urgency in his voice made me worry. What was going on? I thought I was okay, but I didn't have a good feeling either. His voice went off again, but this time I could see his face several feet away. "HEATHER! Get over here! RIGHT NOW!" The tube suddenly flew around a corner and I saw everyone's bodies get thrust to the other side of the tube. NOT ME! I was so stuffed in between those guys that I didn't move an inch.

Suddenly, Adam's voice was right next to me and I felt a hand grab me from outside of the little huddle. I got yanked out. Mr. Davis had a hold of me, and Adam rushed over. "Heather! Are you alright?!" I said I was. Adam asked, "Did they touch you?!" Good grief, well, if full body contact on ALL sides of my body counts, then YES, they touched me! I just replied, "I'm ok. Thank you for getting me out of there."

Yuck, the entire rest of the ride, the black guys stared at me and Iwas SOOO happy to be out of there! What an experience! I wonder if something was going on that I didn't know about because Adam's voice was so urgent. I wonder if he heard some of the men whispering or something. I knew that nothing had been stolen because I was clasping my purse with a death grip. Who knows! =) It was a good learning experience.

That night, I was playing games with Kenzie, Teasha, Ryan, and Kyle in the guy's room. At about 2 am, AJ walks into the room, swaying like a tree in the wind. "You guys better not tell anyone how late I was out! I am NOT drunk!" he proclaimed. His eyes rolled back and he leaned up against the wall. Haha, we all looked at each other and burst into laughter. He walked over to Kenzie and slapped her bum! She turned, gave him a dirty look, and asked what he had been doing. I asked Ryan to "escort" us back to our room, and we left.

One thing that I found interesting in London was that the Queen was a big thing, all over town. But hey, I guess she IS the Queen! =) Her face is on the money and she looks very pretty! We had the opportunity to watch the guards change shifts. At about 11:00 am, all of the guards lined up and a new group walked in to take over. All of this was on horse back. SO COOL!!! =) It was like a parade, and it happens every day. We got to walk right by Buckingham Palace. WOW! It was a great day!

On our way to FRANCE!...our 3rd night in Europe, we are riding in a train. Overnight, to Paris, France!!! We loaded up all of our luggage onto the train and then loaded ourselves in. I am going to TRY and paint a picture of how this all looked.

Imagine a tiny room, about 12X6 feet. Maybe. The two benches became the 2 bottom bunks. Then out of the wall, unfolded 4 other beds. So there were 3 beds on both sides of the "room" all stacked up on top of each other. 6 beds total in this TINY room. The beds were pretty much slabs hanging off of the wall, barely big enough for a body and the bed above you is about 2 feet above your head. A little claustrophobic!!! =) I was on the bottom bunk, and I managed. At first, I had to take a deep breath.